Obama won reelection despite a high unemployment rate, declining average incomes and skyrocketing government debt because voters blamed his predecessor for the economic problems and didn't trust his opponent, Mitt Romney.

Even though the economy has improved somewhat in the past three years, the United States' situation remains dire: the poverty rate is at a historic high of 15 percent; middle class income is back to the 1995 level and wealth to 1983; the unemployed who find jobs end up with significantly lower pay than at their prior employment; and the combined local and federal government deficit at 9.5 percent of GDP and debt stock at 120 percent of GDP.