Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh was dismayed by revised economic numbers showing the U.S. economy shrunk a staggering 2.9 percent annualized rate in the first three months of 2014, placing the blame squarely on President Obama’s policies and claiming “this is what I meant when I said I hope he fails.”
On Wednesday, Limbaugh led his radio program with the Commerce Department’s “revision” of statistics on America’s gross domestic product in the first quarter of 2014.
While reports from April indicated a 0.1 percent decline and reports from May bumped that up to 1 percent, Commerce is now indicating that the U.S. economy would shrink by nearly 3 percent if trends from January to March persist all year.
“What people need to understand — it is a result of policy,” Limbaugh declared. “The United States’ economy is not naturally inclined to this kind of horrible performance. The United States economy, as designed, is designed to grow and expand.”
“None of this is accidental,” he continued. “None of this just happens to be occurring. It is the result of policy — six years of it!”
“This is what I meant when I said I hope he fails,” Limbaugh declared, referencing a widely-criticized statement he made within days of President Obama’s inauguration in 2009. “This is what I hoped would not happen.”
“How many stimuluses, or stimuli, have we had that were designed to prevent all this?” he asked. “How many summits at the White House on jobs or the economy?”
“If Barack Obama had been sworn into office during his immaculation in January of 2009 and proceeded to do NOTHING, we would be better off,” Limbaugh charged.
“And that’s the point,” he concluded. “If he had just sat there and pretended to be king, we would be better off than we are now.”