The Incredible, Shrinking Presidency of Barack Obama

"According to the Federal Reserve, household financial assets, which exclude homes, dropped from a peak of $57 trillion in the third quarter of 2007 to just over $49 trillion in the fourth quarter of last year, the latest period for which data is available.

"A survey to be released this summer by the Public Policy Institute of AARP, an advocacy group for older Americans, found a quarter of Americans 50 years and older used up all their savings during the 2007-09 recession. About 43 percent of the 5,000 respondents who took part in the survey said their savings had not recovered." ("Unemployed Baby Boomers Are Getting Hired By Going Back To School", Business Insider)

Sure they're going back to work. What do you expect them to do? They're broke! They got wiped out in Wall Street's mortgage laundering scam and they're still behind the eightball five years later. And what's left of the money they set aside for retirement is yielding a big zilch thanks to the Fed's zero rate policy which is forcing people back into another decade of penal servitude at minimum wage. That's why you see so many hunched over graybeards in red vests with "Happy to Serve You" splattered on their chests lugging shopping bags out to the cars for old ladies. Because they're broke and out of options. Everyone knows someone like this unless, of course, they're one of the fortunate few who make up the Nobel 1%; aka -- The Job Cremators. Then they don't have to fret about that sort of thing.

Here's another gem you might not have seen in USA Today a few months back:

"Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream.

"Survey data exclusive to The Associated Press points to an increasingly globalized U.S. economy, the widening gap between rich and poor, and the loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs as reasons for the trend.

"Hardship is particularly growing among whites, based on several measures. Pessimism among that racial group about their families' economic futures has climbed to the highest point since at least 1987. In the most recent AP-GfK poll, 63% of whites called the economy 'poor.'

"'I think it's going to get worse,' said Irene Salyers, 52, of Buchanan County, Va., a declining coal region in Appalachia. Married and divorced three times, Salyers now helps run a fruit and vegetable stand with her boyfriend, but it doesn't generate much income.

"Nationwide, the count of America's poor remains stuck at a record number: 46.2 million, or 15% of the population, due in part to lingering high unemployment following the recession. While poverty rates for blacks and Hispanics are nearly three times higher, by absolute numbers the predominant face of the poor is white...

"'Poverty is no longer an issue of 'them', it's an issue of 'us,' says Mark Rank, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis who calculated the numbers. 'Only when poverty is thought of as a mainstream event, rather than a fringe experience that just affects blacks and Hispanics, can we really begin to build broader support for programs that lift people in need.'"  ("4 in 5 in USA face near-poverty, no work", USA Today)

Does Obama have any idea of the damage he's doing with his Rich-First policies? The country is in a terrible state and yet Obama continues to approve bills that throw millions of people off unemployment benefits, sharply cut government spending, or undermine vital safety-net programs that keep the sick and the elderly from dying on the streets. It's like he's trying to reduce 300 million Americans to grinding third-world poverty in his short eight-year term. Is that the goal?

Did you know that -- according to Gallup -- 20.0% of all Americans did not have enough money to buy food that they or their families needed at some point over the past year? Or that -- according to a Feeding America hunger study -- more than 37 million people are now using food pantries and soup kitchens? Or that one out of six Americans is now living in poverty which is the highest level since the 1960s? Or that the gap between the rich and poor is greater than any in history?

Everything has gotten worse under Obama. Everything. And, not once, in his five years as president, has this gifted and charismatic leader ever lifted a finger to help the millions of people who supported him, who believed in him, and who voted him into office.

These latest poll results indicate that many of those same people are beginning to wake up and see what Obama is really all about.