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Blasting President Barack Obama to doing a bad job as president, 69-year-old real estate mogul Donald Trump said it will be a long time before another black becomes president. Insisting Barack “set a very poor standard,” Trump, refers mainly to residual effects of the Great Recession, once called by former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan one of the worst “financial panics” in U.S. History. Greenspan harked backed to the 1913 financial panic where J.P. Morgan and J.D. Rockefeller had to bailout major banks, when major U.S. financial institutions ran out of cash, prompting the creation of the Federal Reserve Board. Without ever mentioning former President George W. Bush, Trump knows that Obama inherited the worst recession since the Great Depression, with Wall Street crashing over 6,000 points and nation’s economy losing 8 million private sector jobs.

Trump blames Obama for adding too few jobs in the black community, when in reality the nation lost unprecedented numbers of jobs under the Bush administration. Not long after Obama took office, the federal budget deficit swelled to $1.4 trillion. Six years later, after adding 10 million jobs, the budget deficit under Obama’s economic policies shrunk to under $500 billion, on its way to possible balanced budget. “He’s done nothing for African Americans . . . “ said Trump, ripping Obama for stagnant wages, rather than praising him for turning around the economy. By any Federal Reserve Board, Labor and Commerce Department metric, the economy made a stunning turnaround. “He’s done nothing . . “ said Trump, regarding Obama’s contribution to the black community. Trump knows that a rising economy lifts all boats, including the African American community.

When Trump faces the first GOP debate in Cleveland, Ohio, Thursday night, Aug. 6, he’ll be forced to back up his fast-and-loose talk. It’s one thing to make uncontested stump speeches, it’s another when Trump’s called on the carpet for spewing blaten propaganda to sell his campaign.. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the GOP’s 2012 nominee, found his credibility crack when he kept challenging Obama’s economy, despite reliable Fed, Labor and Commerce Department metrics. Trump now must convince voters that the economy’s falling apart, despite credible metrics saying otherwise. Ripping Obama plays well to the Trump choir that wouldn’t give the president credit for anything. Adding over 10 million jobs since April 2010, Obama’s watched Wall Street triple in value since taking office Jan. 20, 2009, exceeding all economic expectations.

Faced with an upcoming debate and GOP frontrunner with 19% of the vote, Trump doesn’t have his foreign and domestic policy talking points down, especially what he’d do differently to jumpstart the economy. Not one GOP candidate, including Trump, wants to hear Nobel Prize-winning New York University Stern School Joseph I. Stiglitz say the nation needs more government jobs. Whatever problems exist with today’s employment picture, whether youth or otherwise, the lack of good paying full-time jobs directly stems from the GOP refusing to fund federal work projects, once heralded as building the nation’s middle class. Without the presence of new federal jobs, there’s little hope of the private sector producing the kinds of jobs needed to improve the sluggish GDP growth, now running around 1.5%. Without some commitment by the GOP to federal jobs, the economy has no chance of fully recovering.

Since the 2012 sequester and 2013 government shutdown, the GOP, led by former House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), refused to add federal jobs, despite the pleading by the nation’s leading economists, including Yale University distinguished economics Professor Robert Shiller. Without admitting it, Trump knows that Obama’s done everything asked of him with his hands tied behind his back when it comes to adding federal jobs. Trump has no answer for what he’d do differently to boost the wages and benefits of average American workers when the federal government, under GOP leadership, has abandoned the idea of government employment. “They have problems now in terms of unemployment numbers, look at their unemployment
numbers . . . “ said Trump, refusing to acknowledge steady improvement under Obama’s economic policies.

Faced with a reality-check Aug. 6, Trump will watch his flash-in-the-pan success evaporate if he can’t master the facts. Selling himself without substance won’t play well in a debate with some of the best policy wonks and one-liner-artists in politics. Ripping Obama, now a lame duck, also won’t play well, since the GOP’s future hangs on discrediting Democratic frontrunner former U.S. Sen. and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Building high-rises and golf courses doesn’t give the experience to be president. By the time the late President Ronald Reagan finished his stint as California governor in 1975, he had written thousands of brief commentaries on virtually every domestic and foreign policy issue. “I think I will win the African American vote and I think will win the Hispanic vote,” insisted Trump, showing he’s either detached-from-reality or hopelessly prone toward blowing smoke.