President Obama's Growth Gap Hits $1.31 Trillion

Stagnation: With fourth-quarter GDP growth downgraded in the latest government report, President Obama's anemic economy stretches on. If this had been only an average recovery, we'd be $1.31 trillion richer.
Remember all that talk at the beginning of last year about how prosperity was — finally — just around the corner? In February 2013, for example, Reuters reported "signs are emerging that a more robust recovery is around the bend."
The same month, Bloomberg told its readers that "most Fed policymakers expect growth of 2.3% to 3%."
At the start of last year, the Obama administration projected growth in 2013 would be 2.3%. The Blue Chip consensus forecast was slightly higher.
None of those projections was stellar. But with the Bureau of Economic Analysis' sharp downward revision of Q4 growth — from 3.2% to 2.4% — each turned out to be overly optimistic. Actual gross domestic product growth for 2013 came in at a pathetic 1.9%.
That means annual growth during Obama's "recovery" has never topped 3%. By comparison, it never fell below 3% during the Reagan recovery. And in the nine years following the 1990-91 recession, GDP grew faster than 3% in all but two. Heck, even Jimmy Carter had some strong growth years.
Looked at another way, if Obama's recovery had merely been average — that is, if it had matched the average growth of the previous 10 economic recoveries — the economy would be $1.31 trillion bigger than it is now.
And 7.5 million more people would have jobs if employment growth had kept pace with the average post-World War II recovery.
It seems the only thing that's shown solid growth under Obama is the pile of excuses he's made to explain away this ongoing subpar performance.
First he rationalized that recoveries from financial crises are always slower. Then it was the tsunami in Japan, the debt crisis in Greece, the protests in the Mideast. He blamed Republicans for threatening to default on the debt and imposing across-the-board spending cuts. Later it was expiring unemployment benefits and "cuts" in food stamps.
Our favorite excuse is the one trotted out for the latest downgrade ... bad weather. Seems a cold winter sapped growth. But the weather excuse doesn't make sense, either, since national temperatures and precipitation were close to average during all of Q4.
Now we're once again hearing talk about emerging signs of growth and a brightening outlook. Prosperity may indeed be just around the corner. But under Obama, there seems to be no end to the corners.

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