A new report published by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Institute (GAI) examined the president’s 1,532 days in office to figure out exactly how he spends his time. For those struggling to find work, the results may not be surprising.
From the report:
Key Findings:
• President Obama has spent 3.6 % of his total work time in economic meetings or briefings of any kind (assuming a six day, 10-hour a-day workweek) throughout his presidency
• President Obama has spent a total of 474.4 hours (or 47.4 10-hour workdays) in economic meetings or briefings of any kind throughout his presidency
• In 2013, President Obama has spent 6 total hours in economic meetings of any kind
• The number of days with some sort of economic meeting have declined significantly throughout President Obama’s time in office. Throughout 2009, President Obama had 140 days with economic meetings. By 2012, the number of days with a scheduled economic meeting decreased to 29 (an 79 % decrease)
• Throughout his time in office, President Obama has played 115 total rounds of golf and spent 86 days on vacation, for an estimated combined total of 976 hours
Sure, being the President has got to be a stressful job. Think, however, about your last four years. How have they stacked up? Have you had time to play 115 rounds of golf or take 86 days of vacation?
A Few Economic Facts:
- 11.6 million people are unemployed, for a rate of 7.6%
- The number of long-term unemployed (for +27 weeks) is 4.6 million people
- The long-term unemployed account for nearly 40% of all unemployed
- 663,000 dropped out of the workforce last month
- The participation rate in the economy is the lowest since 1979
- 23 million households in the United States are on food stamps, that’s 1 in 5
- More people are on food stamps in America than live in Spain: 47,692,896
Understanding that the President is spending less and less time on the economy is disheartening. To accept that there isn’t much more work to do is unacceptable.