This editorial from the News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.) does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Spokesman-Review editorial board.

The recovery from the Great Recession appears to be getting stronger. Alas, politics has dampened the enthusiasm of some Scrooges, President Barack Obama’s critics, who can’t take “yes” for an answer.

As one liberal commentator noted, if this were the second year of a Mitt Romney presidency instead of the sixth year under President Obama, there would be parades in the streets and praise for the president from some of Obama’s perennial critics.

But the facts are the facts. And they’re mostly good.

In November, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated, there were 321,000 jobs created, an astounding number. Unemployment is down. The gross domestic product grew at 5 percent, on an annual pace, in the third quarter.

And when the president was formulating the Affordable Care Act, Republicans predicted catastrophic consequences for the economy, with a federal deficit certain to explode. The deficit is down and millions of Americans now have health insurance. Should the coverage continue to increase, medical costs are likely to go down because fewer people will depend on free care through emergency rooms.

The days before the new year find the nation’s economy in a growing and optimistic mode. This week, the Dow Jones industrial average topped 18,000 for the first time.

Would-be presidents bewailing “Obama’s failures” are scrambling for some way to cast the recovery in a bad light.

To cope with a recession spawned by a reckless Wall Street, a combination of tax cuts and deregulation and, yes, bad mortgage loans, Washington moved toward bailouts and stimulus. Some conservatives argued that the economy would recuperate on its own. Don’t interfere with the free markets, they said. That would be socialism.

But President Obama moved ahead. The auto industry was saved, taxpayers got their money back and hundreds of thousands of jobs were preserved.

To be sure, the “recovery” hasn’t been that for the millions of Americans who saw their jobs go away during the downturn. Many are finding jobs, but most pay less, and benefits have diminished compared with what they had before the recession began. And those on the bottom rungs of the ladder are still there, hampered by a lack of education and skills.

There remain some things that government can do to help. It can invest in putting people back to work through infrastructure projects such as bridge building and road improvements and other public works. It can bolster investment, along with the private sector, in training and education. Let this rising economic tide lift all boats, not just the yachts of the wealthy.

Helping the unemployed and the underemployed find good jobs, after all, isn’t some government “giveaway,” any more than it was in the Great Depression. Work is hope. Hope is a determination to improve one’s self and the future of one’s family, which has tremendous long-term benefits for the nation’s economy.

A time like this, a time of improving fortunes, is the best for making these investments and thus ensuring dividends for America in the future.