Are we better off today than we were four years ago? Okay, let’s do this. The campaign for the president of the United States officially starts now. I hate progressives being wishy-washy. It is time for us to step up. Paul Ryan threw a simple 70 mile an hour pitch right down the center of the plate only to have several progressives foul it off. Dammit. We’ve got to do better. This was easy. Paul Ryan asked whether we are better off now than we were four years ago. This is a no-brainer.

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First let’s look at the deficit which the GOP likes to talk about all of the time. Who has piled up the debt?

It is the Republicans who have burdened us with debt. Trillions of dollars of Republican debt. Let me just underline what the above graph tells us. George W. Bush saddled the economy with $5.07 trillion in debt. Barack Obama has come nowhere near this lofty goal.

Now, on to the all-important question, are we better off today than we were four years ago? The answer is a big and loud Hell, Yeah! Our economic output was actually negative when Barack Obama took office. We’ve seen real GDP growth go from negative to positive and remain continuously positive for the last ten quarters.

Finally, and most importantly, when Barack Obama took office our economy was losing over 600,000 jobs per month. We’ve seen private sector growth (really important to Republicans) for 29 straight months. It is time for Democrats, progressives and other liberally leaning allies to get our heads in the game. When the Republicans serve up a softball, we must hit it out of the park – every time. So, the answer to the question as to whether we are better off now than we were four years ago – (with a smile) Hell, Yes!