Category Archives: JOBS

November 15, 2012 · 12:34 PM

Fox News Kicks Off New Jobs Number Conspiracy

Apparently Fox News has no reason to change their ways after the “shellacking” they got with the recent presidential election results.  They seem to be comfortable in their little conspiracy bubble and apparently so do their viewers…

Think Progress

The Labor Department today announced that 439,000 workers filed for initial jobless claims last week, a large jump from the previous week. The increase is largelyattributable to Hurricane Sandy. As the Associated Press explained, “applications increased by 78,000 because a large number of applications were filed in states damaged by the storm. People can claim unemployment benefits if their workplaces close and they don’t get paid.” Economists expect the storm to distort economic data for at least a few more weeks.

However, Fox News and other conservatives have a different explanation: More cooking of the books by the Obama administration. When the unemployment rate dropped in September,conservatives alleged a conspiracy on the part of the Labor Department to aid Obama’s re-election. Fox News, along with Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI), were once again alleging a conspiracy after the latest numbers were released today:

– FOX NEWS’ ERIC BOLLING: “The Department of Labor is getting sketchier and sketchier with each one of these numbers.”

– FOX NEWS’ GRETCHEN CARLSON: “A lot of people are going to be raising some eyebrows pretty high today that, after the election, we go up to this whopping number of 439,000.”

– GOV. SCOTT WALKER (R-WI): “Well, real concerns about the numbers. Certainly, some will question the timing.“

Watch it:

However, Fox’s television anchors evidently did not coordinate coverage with the network’s own website, which posted the AP’s take on the number:

Ed: Doh!

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October 5, 2012 · 8:33 PM

Meet The Conservatives Who Think Today’s Job Numbers Are A Conspiracy

According to these people, President Obama is the biggest “thug” ever to occupy the White House…

Think Progress

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released an unexpectedly strong monthly jobs report on Friday, finding a dramatic drop in unemployment to 7.8 percent and revised the number of jobs added in July and August up from initial estimates. While for most Americans, the growing economy is good news, conservatives immediately expressed their skepticism in the jobs report’s credibility.

1) Minutes after the report was released, Jack Welch, who famously cooked General Electric’s accounting books when he was CEO, accused President Obama of manipulating the numbers to distract from his debate performance:

 

2) Conn Carroll, a senior writer at the Washington Examiner, doesn’t think the problem is the BLS, but a widespread conspiracy of Democrats lying about their unemployment:

Conn Carroll@conncarroll

I don’t think BLS cooked numbers. I think a bunch of Dems lied about getting jobs. That would have same effect.

 

3) Former Rumsfeld Chief of Staff Keith Urbahn questioned the timing:

Keith Urbahn@keithurbahn

No, there’s nothing at all curious about the last jobs report diving to 7.8% unemployment before the election.

 

4) Stuart Varney on Fox News claims the drop in unemployment five weeks before the election is too “convenient”:

 

5) Also on Fox News, Charles Payne “guarantees” that unemployment rate will be revised back up to above 8 percent after the election:

 

6) Fox News’ Eric Bolling:

ericbolling@ericbolling

WOW Obama Labor Dept (7.8%)smarter than all 25 of Americas top Economists (8.2%est)..or something far more insideous 4p&5p FNC/DVR

 

7) Rep. Allen West (R-FL) may be the first elected official to weigh in:

Allen West@AllenWest

In regards to today’s Jobs report—I agree with former GE CEO Jack Welch, Chicago style politics is at work here…

tinyurl.com/9rbommz

 

8) Americans for Limited Government released a statement claiming the numbers are plainly false:

Either the Federal Reserve, which has its fingers on the pulse of every element of the economy, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics manufacturing survey report are grievously wrong or the number used to calculate the unemployment rate are wrong, or worse manipulated. Given that these numbers conveniently meet Obama’s campaign promises one month before the election, the conclusions are obvious.

9) CNBC’s Rick Santelli questioned the unemployment drop:

I told you they’d get it under 8 percent — they did! You can let America decide how they got there!

10) Conservative talk show host Laura Ingraham tweeted that the jobs report is “propaganda”:

Laura Ingraham@IngrahamAngle

Jobs  from Labor Secretary Hilda Solis are total pro-Obama propaganda–labor force participation rate at 30-yr low. Abysmal!

 

11) Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) notes that he’s “not enough of an economist” to opine on the numbers before saying that he wouldn’t put “anything past” the Obama administration.

Full Transcript of McCain:

Q: We just had a Republican Congressman on who believes the same thing. What’s your opinion? What do you make of this number, and given what you see in your own backyard, does it ring true?

MCCAIN: Well, I think that it’s pretty significant that for the first time in nearly four years of this administration that we’ve gotten down to below 8%. They’re the same ones that when we passed the stimulus package back in 2009 that said the unemployment rate would go at least to 6%, and probably lower. And when we passed Obama care they said the same thing. But I think it is some good news for Americans. I think that a lot of families are still hurt very, very badly. Depending on how you count it, 23 million people are still out of work. A lot of this data is people who are part-time unemployment. But I can’t — frankly, I’m not enough of an economist to question exactly what those numbers are. Our discussion about the WARN act that just took place where there are blatant violations of the law — I wouldn’t put anything past this administration, the same one that trotted out our ambassador to the United Nations 5 days after an al Qaeda affiliated act of terror took place in Libya to tell the American people that it was a spontaneous demonstration caused by a video and I’m not making that up.

UPDATE

A McCain spokesperson denies that the senator was questioning the numbers: “He was talking about the WARN Act and Libya,” Brian Rogers told TPM. “And so when he said ‘I wouldn’t put anything past the administration,’ he was not referring to the BLS numbers.” “He’s not questioning the BLS numbers in any way.”

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July 6, 2012 · 7:46 PM

5 Ways Republicans Have Sabotaged Job Growth

No surprise here.

[Some] Republicans are not very nice people.

When they complain about the dismal job numbers every month and blame President Obama for the poor showing of job growth, they display a measure of  hypocrisy that is beyond belief…

Think Progress

New numbers released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the economy added a mere 80,000 jobs in June. That’s down from an average of 150,000 jobs a month for the first part of the year, and far too little to keep up with population growth.

Republican intransigence on economic policy has been a key contributor to the sluggish recovery. As early as 2009, Republican fear-mongering over spending and their readiness to filibuster in the Senate helped convince the White House economic team that an $800 billion stimulus was the most they could hope to get through Congress. Reporting has since revealed that the team thought the country actually needed a stimulus on the order of $1.2 to $1.8 trillion. The economy’s path over the next three years proved them right. Here are the top five ways the Republicans have sabotaged the economic recovery since:

1. Filibustering the American Jobs Act. Last October, Senate Republicans killeda jobs bill proposed by President Obama that would have pumped $447 billion into the economy. Multiple economic analysts predicted the bill would add around two million jobs and hailed it as defense against a double-dip recession. The Congressional Budget Office also scored it as a net deficit reducer over ten years, and the American public supported the bill.

2. Stonewalling monetary stimulus. The Federal Reserve can do enormous good for a depressed economy through more aggressive monetary stimulus, and by tolerating a temporarily higher level of inflation. But with everything from Ron Paul’s anti-inflationary crusade to Rick Perry threatening to lynch Chairman Ben Bernanke, Republicans have browbeaten the Fed into not going down this path. Most damagingly, the GOP repeatedly held up President Obama’s nominations to the Federal Reserve Board during the critical months of the recession, leaving the board without the institutional clout it needed to help the economy.

3. Threatening a debt default. Even though the country didn’t actually hit its debt ceiling last summer, the Republican threat to default on the United States’ outstanding obligations was sufficient to spook financial markets anddo real damage to the economy.

4. Cutting discretionary spending in the debt ceiling deal. The deal the GOP extracted as the price for avoiding default imposed around $900 billion in cuts over ten years. It included $30.5 billion in discretionary cuts in 2012 alone, costing the country 0.3 percent in economic growth and 323,000 jobs, according to estimates from the Economic Policy Institute. Starting in 2013, the deal will trigger another $1.2 trillion in cuts over ten years.

5. Cutting discretionary spending in the budget deal. While not as cataclysmic as the debt ceiling brinksmanship, Republicans also threatened a shutdown of the government in early 2011 if cuts were not made to that year’s budget. The deal they struck with the White House cut $38 billion from food stamps, health, education, law enforcement, and low-income programs among others, whilesparing defense almost entirely.

There have also been a few near-misses, in which the GOP almost prevented help from coming to the economy. The Republicans in the House delayed a transportation bill that saved as many as 1.9 million jobs. House Committees run by the GOP have passed proposals aimed at cutting billions from food stamps, and the party has repeatedly threatened to kill extensions of unemployment insurance and cuts to the payroll tax.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, those policies — the payroll tax cut, food stamps, unemployment insurance, and discretionary spending for low-income Americans —have the highest multipliers, meaning more job boosting potential per dollar.

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October 1, 2011 · 12:54 AM

Breaking Their Promise To Focus On Job Creation, House GOP Proposes Slashing Job Training Programs

The crazy thing about the Congressional GOP is that they still expect to get the White House, a majority in the Senate, as well as maintaining their majority in the House in the 2012 election.

This is preposterous.  They are counting on the mood of the country who polls show are extremely dissatisfied with Obama.  What they tend to forget is that the American people are even more disgusted with their policies.

I have to ask, what color is the sky on the GOP’s planet?  They are certainly not living in the reality of our planet.

Think Progress

House Republicans yesterday released their draft budget proposal for labor, health, and human service, which in one fell swoop revives the assault on all their favorite bugaboos, including Planned Parenthood, National Public Radio, the National Labor Relations Board, and President Obama’s health care reform law. The GOP also targeted heat subsidies that prevent low-income families from freezing in the winter, and slashed education funding by $2.4 billion. The bill also eliminates the Administration’s “Race to the Top” education reform program and reduces eligibility for Pell Grants for low-income college students.

Perhaps most surprisingly for a party that claims to be focused on job creation, the GOP budgetreduces funding for job training programs that give the unemployed the skills they need to find work in an ailing economy:

Employment Training Administration (ETA) – The legislation provides the ETA with $7.5 billion in new discretionary budget authority – $2.2 billion (-23%) below last year’s level and $2.1 billion (-22%) below the President’s request. Much of this reduction is due to the transition of employment and training programs to a federal fiscal year and the elimination of $2.4 billion in advance appropriations for the 2013 fiscal year.

Slashing funding for these training programs by nearly a quarter will deprive thousands of workers of a better chance to find employment. The bill also cuts the Department of Labor’s funding by $2.6 billion and “increases oversight” of job training programs by requiring the GAO to conduct a study on their cost-effectiveness — a transparent pretext for further diminishing the programs. The budget also laughably claims to “foster a pro-job growth environment” through a number of anti-union measures.

The national unemployment rate remains above 9 percent and 25 million Americans are unemployed or can’t find full-time work. Yet this is not the first time congressional Republicans have tried to zero out job training programs.

In February the plan proposed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) — and approved by almost the entire GOP caucus — gutted federal job training funding by nearly 50 percent. Republicans’ preoccupation with abolishing these programs illustrates that their talk about creating jobs is nothing more than empty rhetoric to conceal a pro-corporate agenda.

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