Almost immediately after Bush's Council of Economic
Advisors glowingly predicted they would create 2.6 million net new jobs
this year, the Republican spin doctors and backtrackers have been
working overtime to deny that's what they meant. Of course, as CBS Moneywatch
has reported, that's precisely what they meant -- they were just insane
to believe it was achievable, and to believe that the press and public
would be too stupid to pick up on it. The semi-literate and uneducated
Presnit, of course, hummed and hawed and refused to say anything when
asked about it after he had trotted it out as 'evidence' the economy
was doing just fine.
Which of course it is not. The red line in the chart above shows Bush's
pathetic job creation record, and shows once and for all that his
criminal tax cuts for the ultra-rich were simply a give-away for
friends, and did not help the economy for the other 99% of Americans
one bit. I am endlessly amazed that anyone with an annual income less
than seven figures could even contemplate voting to re-elect this fraud.
Again, as CBS reports, there are two ways to interpret Bush's
'forecast'. The more conservative one is that the economy will generate
2.6 million net new jobs in 2004, about 220 thousand per month, moving
total employment up almost to where it was before he seized office (the
lower blue line above). This compares to growth of 112 thousand in
January, so despite the ebullience that surrounded that number
announcement, even that number is only half the monthly rate needed to
achieve this target. But when asked for clarification, the Council
Chairman said that the forecast is for average 2004 employment to be 2.6 million higher than average
2003 employment of 130 million. To achieve that feat, employment will
have to jump by 460 thousand per month and reach about 135 million by
December (the higher blue line on the chart above).
In the interest of public service, I'm going to hold Bush and the
Council to their word. Each month I'll repost the above chart showing
progress towards the 2.6 million net new job target. And to be more
than fair, I'll settle for achievement of the lower forecast on the
chart above. After all, I appreciate that Mr. Bush has a lot of trouble
with numbers.
This is not an unreasonable expectation of a president who used this
ludicrous announcement for blatant political purposes. This is the
number one issue in the campaign and he needs to be measured on his
performance. After all, if he had run an administration that merely
kept job growth up with new entrants in the labour force (growing at
150 thousand a month), employment would currently be above 139 million,
and the jobless recovery would not be an issue.
The number that Bush uses to talk about jobs, of course, is the
fraudulent unemployment rate, which excludes the millions who have
simply given up looking for work in the horrendous Bush economy, and
also fails to include the millions who are struggling with part-time
jobs because Bush is encouraging his big business buddies to outsource
and offshore all the full-time jobs. I've already written about the fact that the actual unemployment rate is over 8%.
MADE IN CANADA
trust your
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