President Barack Obama’s punitive tax proposals and other divisive policies are pushing the country into a recession, Fox Business Network Senior Correspondent Charles Gasparino writes in a New York Post column.

The U.S. gross domestic product grew a lethargic 1.5 percent in the second quarter, according to an advance estimate released by the Commerce Department on Friday, down from a lackluster 2 percent growth rate in the first quarter.

“The slowdown announced Friday — on top of another slowdown in the first quarter — is further proof that the president’s class-warfare economic rhetoric and policies are pushing the country perilously close to a double-dip recession,” Gasparino writes.

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“The numbers are pretty stark: Growth of 2 percent for the first quarter was already scary, down from around 4 percent at the end of last year. A few years out of a stiff recession like the one we had, the economy’s normally roaring, not sagging back down,” he continues.

In past recessions, economies typically bounced back rather quickly, but that hasn’t been the case this time.

The recession officially ended in 2009, though growth rates remain weak, while unemployment rates remain high at over 8 percent and refusing to budge.

Obama, meanwhile, has proposed hiking taxes on wealthy Americans, as evidenced by his recent call to let the Bush tax cuts expire for those earning over $250,000.

“[T]he drop to a 1.5 percent growth rate for the second quarter is really quite staggering. At this rate, we could be in double-dip territory even by Election Day, as consumers continue to slash their spending and businesses their investments,” Gasparino says.

“Yet the president either doesn’t know or doesn’t care that the country is headed right back into recession territory. He’s too busy bashing Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital to address what increasingly looks to be unfolding economic calamity.”

Cooling growth rates do have economists concerned.

Growth rates at or lower than 2 percent won’t make a dent in the unemployment rate, which stood at 8.2 percent in June.

“The main take away from [the GDP] report, the specifics aside, is that the U.S. economy is barely growing,” says Dan Greenhaus, chief economic strategist at BTIG LLC, according to The Associated Press.

“Along with a reduction in the actual amount of money companies were able to make, it’s no wonder the unemployment rate cannot move lower,” Greenhaus adds.

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