Obama has harmed the middle class

I am a retired handicapped educator who votes independently. I am considered to be middle-class. Therefore, I must vote for Romney-Ryan, as President Obama has done enormous harm to middle-class households. Obama signed his stimulus-spending bill in January 2009, when the median household income was $54,983. By June 2012, it had tumbled to $50,964, adjusted for inflation. That is $4,019 in lost real income. Even if you start the analysis in June 2009, when the recession ended the median household income is $2.544 or nearly five percent. The decline during the Bush recession from December 2007 to June 2009 was 2.6 percent. Thus the Obama recovery cost us almost twice as much as the Bush recession! The President claims the decline on his watch is from over a decade. But that is not true as the middle-class gained 30 percent from 1983 to 2005. That $2,544 that was lost during Obama’s tenure is just gone!

Manufacturing, retail sales and our GDP are down. We have 8.1 percent unemployment, millions who have stopped looking for work, millions who are underemployed, and millions more on the food stamp program. It’s time for a change!

Barring presidential leadership (which has been lacking in my opinion), the Pentagon will be walloped with another drop and disproportionate funding cut. It will be $50 billion a year for a decade. Under last year’s budget control act, Obama and congress need to agree on new federal savings to stop these cuts from starting on January 2. Secretary Leon Panetta says, “It’s unworkable and a disaster that will increase severe damage to our national defense!”

Obama has been busy traveling around our nation for photo opportunities and lobbying for votes instead of minding his responsibilities. This cut would weaken America at a time of “Great world conflict.”

Gerald W. Ray, Spokane