Tag Archives: Clinton

Clinton/Obama and Updated Bush/Obama First Terms “By the Numbers” Released

The Alabama Policy Institute (API) has released a new infographic in its By the Numbers series that presents side-by-side statistics from comparable time periods during the first terms in office of Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, as well as an updated infographic comparing the first terms in office of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

The one-page Clinton/Obama Presidents’ First Terms By the Numbers and the Bush/Obama Presidents’ First Terms By the Numbers infographics cover a variety of key issues including the cost of health insurance and a gallon of gas, as well as federal regulations implemented, length of unemployment, job creation and loss, per capita income, national debt, approval ratings, change in the S&P 500, number of federal employees, Americans on food stamps and others.

The infographics, in which all dollars have been adjusted for inflation to provide realistic comparisons, can be found in their entirety on the By the Numbers page at www.alabamapolicy.org.

According to API Policy Director and General Counsel Cameron Smith, API was vigilant in gathering truly comparable statistics.

“It was important to API that we provide an apples-to-apples comparison,” Smith said. “Since President Obama’s first term is not over, we did not pair statistics of his incomplete term with those of President Clinton’s or President Bush’s full term. If data was only available for the first three years of Mr. Obama’s administration for a particular statistic, we compared that figure to the same information from the first three years of the Bush and Clinton administrations.”

“An informed electorate is a powerful force, and we hope our By the Numbers series provides a basic, easy-to-comprehend snapshot that will educate Americans on the issues that matter most.”

By the Numbers</em. complements API's studies, white papers, issue briefs, editorials and other resources available at www.alabamapolicy.org. Other topics addressed in the By the Numbers series include Energy, K-12 Education and Medicaid.

Is Obama Pro-Israel?

The November 12th edition of The Progress Report, the politically progressive author argues that the Obama administration is supportive of Israel. The following is an excerpt of the post titled “Obama’s Pro-Israel Record”.

The ongoing disagreement over the settlements has tended to obscure the Obama administration’s record of support for Israel, and has been used by critics to dishonestly label the President as “anti-Israel.” But by any reasonable measure, Obama has been an extremely pro-Israel president. He has significantly expanded trade between Israel and the U.S., and played an extremely important behind-the-scenes role in bringing about Israel’s acceptance into the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a long sought-after Israeli goal. In September, Obama went before the United Nations General Assembly and challenged the international community to support Arab-Israeli peace, and declared that “Israel’s existence must not be a subject for debate.” He also assured the world that “efforts to chip away at Israel’s legitimacy will only be met by the unshakable opposition of the United States.” In comments made to The Progress Report in August, Josh Block of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee remarked, “Clearly the Obama administration remains deeply committed to the U.S.-Israel alliance.”

It’s been rumored that Secretaty of State Clinton was pro-Israel prior to Obama’s becoming president. That would help explain pro-Israel of the staunchly pro-Muslim presidency, which is the resounding sentiment of many Israelis and others. Being representative of American interests such as Middle East peace and trade, Obama also would of necessity seek to get Israeli officials what they want in exchange for serious negotiations with the Palestinians.