If it seems like we've been writing this piece for years, it's because we have. It never changed the entire time Obama was president. Occasionally you'd get a quarter in which GDP growth would spike a little, but it never lasted. And by the end of the year, GDP growth was either barely above 2.0 percent or below it.
And while Obama's defenders would cite the 2008 mortgage market meltdown and the subsequent "Great Recession" as an excuse, that never made any sense. GDP growth typically accelerates quickly after a recession ends and the recovery begins. And even if you grant their assertion that this particular recession was an unusual event, that doesn't let Obama and his policies off the hook when you look at a horrible economic performance in 2016.
