Former President Barack Obama was horrible for economic growth in 2016, columnist Jonathon M. Trugman writes in the New York Post.
The U.S. economy grew just 1.6 percent in Obama's final year in office, a mark that puts the Obama presidency in last place among 13 post-World War II presidents when it comes to growth.
Herbert Hoover is the only president with a worse economic record since 1930.
Obama inherited a troubled economy as the Great Recession began two months before he took office in 2008.
"There was a recession and he recovered and we had really strong growth throughout the recovery and it has been really broad paced… I think we did a better job of fighting the recession than anywhere else in the world, maybe with the exception of China," Michael Madowitz, an economist at the Center for American Progress, told FOX Business.
Growth under Obama averaged less than 1.5 percent annually, but the economy also gained jobs every month after February 2010.
Glenn Hubbard, the former chairman of President George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, told PBS Obama's record was "much more mixed with a continued highly regulatory approach that I think has slowed U.S. economic growth."
"So I think at the beginning there was a lot of effort, although maybe some misplaced, and over time, it was much more checkered.”
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