Robert Hey: Obama’s economic legacy was awful

I must respectfully disagree with much of your editorial regarding President Obama’s legacy. Various government agencies have revealed during Obama’s presidency that this is the worst economic recovery since the 1940s and the lowest labor participation rate since the 1970s. The GDP was under 3 percent for the entire eight years and nearly 95 million Americans are underemployed or out of the labor force.

I believe this is due to the economic uncertainty created after Obamacare was instituted along with stifling regulations. Nearly 3,000 new regulations were added requiring 583 million man-hours to comply with at a cost of $873 billion. In the last eight years we’ve amassed $9.3 trillion in debt, more than all previous presidents combined, leaving the national debt at $19.9 trillion. Home ownership rates are at the lowest level in 50 years and over 43 million Americans are living in poverty. Twenty-five million have been pushed out of the middle class, and the number on food stamps has increased from 32 million to 43 million. Massive government spending and overreach have made things so much worse. I wanted our president to succeed, but his policies have harmed our country and diminished out standing in the world.

This story was originally published January 20, 2017 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Robert Hey: Obama’s economic legacy was awful."