Questions for Clinton and Trump Economic Debate
Economy - Jobs Lost, Jobs Added Jobs Recovered President Obama touts that he has added 15 million jobs over the past 78 months. The problem is that the number of jobs created fails to mention that 14.5 million full-time jobs were lost during the recession. We have only added 4.5 million jobs for an additional 29 million workers. Only 2.7 million of the 4.5 million jobs have been full-time jobs. What will you do to spur the economy to find work for the other 24 million new workers added to the economy since July 2007?
Participation: Workforce participation is at a generational low. If we had the same workforce participation right now that we did during August of 1988, August of 2000, or August of 2008 we would have 8 to 11 million more people participating in the economy.
Unemployment is artificially low. We have seen record levels of people working multiple part-time jobs this year. We saw a record level of August workers working two full-time jobs. When these people lose one job they do not qualify for unemployment benefits because they are still employed. The weekly first-time unemployment claims has falsely reported that we have had 80 consecutive weeks of under 300,000 first-time claims as of September 15. The problem is that the seasonal factors used to convert the non-seasonally adjusted data to the reported seasonally adjusted data have been manipulated to create this streak. The streak actually began this January. The effective unemployment rate is over 10% when the 8 million missing participants from the prior question are factored into the unemployment rate data. What will you do to make the unemployment claims data more transparent?
The Home Ownership rate is at generational lows. We have not seen the number of new homes under construction return to pre-recession levels. The August home construction data has us on track for levels comparable to 1983 and 1992. The July New Home Sales data and the July Existing Home Sales data showed similar sluggishness. What will you do to encourage home ownership, realizing that people need full-time jobs to qualify for a mortgage?
Not all segments of the Jobs Market have recovered from the Great Recession. Mrs. Clinton has said that she will put miners out of work. Mining and Logging is one of the job sectors that remains below pre-recession levels. Construction, Manufacturing, IT, and Government jobs are also at levels lower than when the recession began. What will you do to encourage job creation in these categories.
Consumer Spending. The Home Furnishings and Furniture, Gasoline, electronics and appliance are not at the monthly levels seen prior to the recession. How can we stimulate the economy?
Irresponsible and Unpatriotic Debt. Senator Obama lambasted President Bush as being irresponsible and unpatriotic for increasing the Federal Debt from 5 trillion dollars to 9 trillion dollars. The Federal Debt was just over $10 trillion on Inauguration Day 2009. The Debt stands at $19.5 trillion with the release of the current Treasury report. It would cost us $1 trillion a year for thirty years to pay down our Debt. We are mortgaging our future. How will you reduce the debt?
Record Spending - Record Taxes The Gasoline Stimulus - The Tax Sedative. The media has supported the idea that the money we are saving at the gasoline pump should be stimulating the economy. We are paying more in taxes to the federal government than we are saving at the pump. We are spending money at record or near record pace each month. What will you do curb spending?
We Can't Keep our Doctors - We Don't Want your Affordable Care Act. The reports are coming in that State Exchanges are folding. Last month the CPI report reported that Health insurance costs are up 7.8% over last year. We are also hearing that we should anticipate increases in premiums of 10% or greater this year. The Affordable Care Act is not affordable. What will you do when you take office to fix this problem?
Mrs. Clinton: If you could not protect four Americans in Benghazi how can you protect the population of the United States?
Mrs Clinton: Who gave permission for your emails to be deleted. Who gave permission for your multiple cellular phones to be destroyed? Who gave permission for your server to be sterilized? Who gave you permission to use a private server?
Mr. Trump. You have never held elected office. Why should your first elected position be as President of the United States.
Does the Buck Stop With You?
It's the Economy.
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