President Obama must have growing concerns that Trump might actually win the race for the White House. One recent headline reads: “Obama stages Republican voter intervention.”

It is obvious that President Obama is chomping at the bit to get involved. He waded into the election debate with his recent Elkhart, Indiana, speech and wasted no time forcefully inserting himself by attacking Donald Trump, the Republican Party, and Fox News.

The president said, “By almost every economic measure, America is better off today than it was when I came here at the beginning of my presidency.” It became abundantly clear that his many successes were, in his mind, reasons to not vote for Trump but instead elect Hillary Clinton in order to preserve this legacy.

However, the very next day after his Elkhart speech the May jobs report was released. It revealed that U.S. employers added only 38,000 jobs in May. That figure badly fell short of the projected increase of about 160,000 jobs. Additionally, the prior two months’ reports were revised downward another 59,000 jobs.

In his Elkhart speech, Obama also said, “The primary story the Republicans have been telling about the economy is not supported by the facts.” Let’s spend some time exploring some of those relevant facts regarding his economy.

I recall when then presidential candidate Obama criticized President Bush for adding $4 trillion to the national debt. This, he said, was “unpatriotic” and even “irresponsible.” He continued, “We now have over $9 trillion dollars of debt that we are going to have to pay back — $30,000 for every man, woman and child.”

Fast forward to today. After almost eight years under the Obama administration, we now find the national debt has exploded to $19.3 trillion. The share for every man, woman, and child has now almost doubled to $59,574 for every man woman and child or $238,296 for a family of four.

However, now President Obama would rather, as he did in Elkhart, concentrate his comment on how he has reduced the deficit rather than talk about the national debt. Remember, any deficit is a shortfall between governmental spending and the taxes collected. It is also important to reiterate that any deficit, regardless of size, adds to the national debt.

Although deficits have declined under Obama, his deficits are still larger than under either George W. Bush or Ronald Reagan. Proof of this is that the national debt was increased by $4 trillion under G.W. Bush and will have nearly doubled from $10.6 trillion to almost $20 trillion by the time Obama leaves office.

In his Elkhart speech, Obama spent some time hyping his signature legislation, which he proudly referred to as Obamacare. Yes, but remember all his promises: 1) you can keep your health-care plan, if you like it, 2) You can keep your doctor, 3) Obamacare will lower your family policy premiums by $2,500, 4) It will not add to the national debt, 5) I will protect Medicare, 6) Obamacare will cover every American, 7) Obamacare will mean more choice, lower costs, and more competition.

Even though each of these seven promises has been proven to be untrue, it’s OK, isn’t it? Because, as Jonathan Gruber told us, “Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage and basically, you know, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically, that was really, really critical to getting this thing (Obamacare) to pass.”

Now, let’s look at some of the true facts about Obamacare: 1) Premiums have risen each year and are expected to go up again in 2017. 2) One report says that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas expects to increase premiums by nearly 60 percent. 3) Some patients are finding they cannot get health care from doctors in their own community. 4) Insurance companies such as United Health Care are discontinuing providing insurance in certain regions of the country. And 5) 12 of the 23 health-care co-ops are closing shop, and those remaining are looking at raising premiums as much as 40 percent. So much for lower prices and competition in the health-care market.

President Obama bragged that, “Over the past seven years, we have cut our dependence on foreign oil by more than 60 percent.” However, even though there has been a decrease in oil imports from foreign countries, it is not due to anything he or the federal government have done. It is all due to increased production on state and private lands, which require far less red tape and quicker, processing times for permits to begin production. Also, we should not forget his stand on the Keystone pipeline.

The president continued to declare that there are fewer families on welfare than in the 1990s. Let’s see if this declaration can stand up to some scrutiny.

 In 1996, 13 years before Obama took office, President Bill Clinton, in concert with Newt Gingrich and his supporters, signed into law the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, which was a cornerstone of Gingrich’s Contract With America. The enactment of this law established a work requirement for any public assistance and resulted in welfare caseloads dropping by half.

Then in 2012 President Obama had the DHS issue a memorandum that essentially gutted all work requirements. The result has been, according to Fact Check.Org, that the number of people on food stamps is now “nearly 42 percent higher than it was when Obama took office…”

The president remarked that his Elkhart speech was designed to do some “myth busting” and “truth telling” and challenged us to do our own “fact-checking” and to “look it up.” I have accepted his challenge, and the foregoing comments are only a sampling of the many facts he championed as being true about his economy.

Lester Still is a resident of Kalispell.