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New Jobless Rate Shatters Four-Year Talking Point for
Romney, GOP
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Playing with the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ numbers is serious stuff, especially for a sitting President. This is something out of the annuls of Richard M. Nixon.
A cadre of conservatives from Jack Welch to Allen West are crying conspiracy over Friday’s good economic news, accusing the White House of cooking the books to boost President Barack Obama’s prospects for reelection.
FACT:
The national unemployment rate is calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a nonpartisan agency composed of career economists and statisticians that currently employees zero political appointees.
The agency is typically directed by an appointee — the only appointed position in the entire organization — but that seat has sat vacant since Bush-pick Keith Hall left in January when his term expired
Any person in their right mind would feel thrilled with October 5th’s Department of Labor report, which states that 114,000 private sector jobs were created in September, and the unemployment rate has decreased to 7.8%. Unfortunately — as progressives have learned the hard way — much of the opposition is unlettered and bat shit crazy.
"Job Truther" Jack Welch, former CEO of General
Electric, tweeted:
ED SHULTZ
REV AL
MADDOW
During the first Presidential debate, Romney declared, “We’ve had 43 straight months with unemployment above 8 percent.” Romney won’t be able to repeat that zinger when he and Obama face off again in two weeks.
Nor can Romney disparage the president for presiding over a term of net employment loss. Romney lost that line late last month when the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed that Obama is net positive for job creation, even after accounting for the president’s first few months in office, when the economy was still hemorrhaging hundreds of thousands of jobs a month because of the Bush-era recession.
To be sure, unemployment is too high and economic growth too slow to quickly knock the unemployment rate down to the traditional “full employment” rate of about 5 percent. But any balanced look at today’s report and at economic improvements in recent years suggest that the 2009 stimulus, the successful auto industry rescue, and landmark financial regulatory reform, have put the economy on a firm path to full recovery.
Next thing you know, Mitt Romney will have Bain Capital fire even more workers at Bain-owned companies so the employment numbers look worse - even though he has a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the presidency.
NFTOS
Editor-In-Chief
Roger West
