Carney Dodges Slide In Incomes During Obama’s “Recovery”

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney Dodges Question From ABC’s Jake Tapper About Recent Data Showing Incomes Falling More During Obama’s Recovery Than During The Recession

ABC’s Jake Tapper: “There was a study published in Bloomberg News, I believe last week, an analysis of census data indicating that American incomes declined more during the expansion that began in June 2009, the three years – they went down – the median household income went down 4.8 percent. That’s worse than happened during the actual 18-month recession, which was going down 2.6 percent. I was wondering if the White House had seen that study, had a brief – and had a response to it, an explanation as to why they thought that might have happened.”

Jay Carney: “Well, Jake, as you know and as I just mentioned, the problems that the middle class has been encountering have predated the recession. During that previous expansion that you noted, under President George W. Bush, the middle class saw its income stagnate or decline, and that was during an economic expansion prior to a cataclysmic recession that had a devastating impact on the country’s economy and the middle class. And there is no question that we have been, as a country, pulling ourselves out of an extremely deep hole that was dug by that recession, and we have much more work to do.”

Tapper: “Well, why did median household incomes go down more after the expansion began than during the actual recession?” (Press Briefing, Washington D.C., 8/30/12)

Under Obama’s Policies, Incomes Have Fallen $4,000 Since The End Of The Recession

Median Household Income Has Fallen Since The Great Recession Ended More Than It Did During The Great Recession. “Median household income fell 4.8 percent on an inflation- adjusted basis since the recession ended in June 2009, more than the 2.6 percent drop during the 18-month contraction, the research firm’s Gordon Green and John Coder wrote in a report today.” (Jeff Kearns, “U.S. Incomes Fell More In Recovery, Sentier Says,” Bloomberg, 8/23/12) 

·         From June 2009 To June 2012, Real Median Annual Household Incomes Have Fallen By Nearly $4,000, From $54,916 To $50,964 “Real median annual household income fell to $53,508 from $54,916 during the 18-month recession from December 2007 to June 2009, according to the firm’s study of income data for the 36- month period ended in June 2012. Incomes kept falling during the 36-month period since then, dropping to $50,964 in June 2012.” (Jeff Kearns, “U.S. Incomes Fell More In Recovery, Sentier Says,” Bloomberg, 8/23/12) 

John Coder, Previous Director Of The Census Bureau’s Income And Poverty Program, Says “Almost Every Group Is Worse Off Than It Was Three Years Ago.” “‘Almost every group is worse off than it was three years ago, and some groups had very large declines in income,’ Green, who previously directed work on the Census Bureau’s income and poverty statistics program, said in a phone interview today.” (Jeff Kearns, “U.S. Incomes Fell More In Recovery, Sentier Says,” Bloomberg, 8/23/12) 

·         Coder: “We’re In An Unprecedented Period Of Economic Stagnation.” (Jeff Kearns, “U.S. Incomes Fell More In Recovery, Sentier Says,” Bloomberg, 8/23/12) 

For The First Time Since The End Of World War II, Mean Family Incomes Declined For Americans In All Income Tiers. “Their downbeat take on their economic situation comes at the end of a decade in which, for the first time since the end of World War II, mean family incomes declined for Americans in all income tiers. But the middle-income tier—defined in this Pew Research analysis as all adults whose annual household income is two-thirds to double the national median —is the only one that also shrunk in size, a trend that has continued over the past four decades.” (“The Lost Decade Of The Middle Class,” Pew Research Center, 8/22/12)

Americans Of Every Demographic Earn Less Today Than They Did In June 2009. “Across the country, in almost every demographic, Americans earn less today than they did in June 2009, when the recovery technically started. As of June, the median household income for all Americans was $50,964, or 4.8 percent lower than its level three years earlier, when the inflation-adjusted median income was $53,508.” (Catherine Rampell, “Big Income Losses For Those Near Retirement,” The New York Times’ “Economix,” 8/23/12)