By Bill O'Reilly

Last quarter, the economy fell back. In fact, it was the worst economic performance since the second quarter of 2009 when the recession officially ended.

According to the Associated Press, the U.S. economy shrank from October through December, Christmas season, hurt by the big defense spending cuts. And the AP says the economy may stay weak because of the rise in Social Security taxes. If you earn $50,000 bucks a year, you'll have $1,000 less to spend in 2013. A household with two workers will average about $4,500 less in their paychecks. Finally job growth sluggish, unemployment likely to remain around eight percent. Again, this according to the Associated Press.

President Obama has spent approximately $5 trillion trying to stimulate the economy. That's taxpayer money. We'll never see again. Because of all the federal spending, President Obama has added $5.8 trillion to the debt in just four years.

So this is grim. America is in a bad place economically, but the folks don't seem to care. New "The Washington Post" poll says 60 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of President Obama. That's a three- year high. Now, that approval may go down due to the sinking economy. But there is no question Americans like Barack Obama and they are cutting him a tremendous amount of slack. It could be style over substance because the President's achievements have been few.

ObamaCare is the law. We all know that. But corporations like Boston Scientific are laying off some workers. Largely because of the cost they will incur for Obamacare health insurance. If that trend takes hold, we're all in big trouble.

So we are living in a very interesting time. We have a popular President, a bad economy and everybody paying more in taxes. It simply doesn't add up. Pardon the pun.

And that's "The Memo."

— You can catch Bill O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo" weeknights at 8 and 11 p.m. ET on the Fox News Channel and any time on foxnews.com/oreilly. Send your comments to: oreilly@foxnews.com.