There They Go Again: Obama and his Administration are Playing More Games

With the Jobs Numbers

The headline number for the September jobs report, based on the Household Survey, showed the unemployment rate dropping to 7.8%, and Obama immediately hit the campaign trail to tout it as a great accomplishment, proof that his tax and spend policies were working and that he was entitled to four more years.  However, Obama intentionally left out the fact that 582,000 of the 873,000 allegedly new jobs in the Household Survey were part time.  Furthermore, only 114,000 new jobs were reported in the more reliable Payroll Survey.  Although discrepancies have appeared between Payroll Survey and the very volatile, less reliable Household Survey before, the size of this discrepancy strains credibility so much that many people are crying foul, including Jack Welch, Ed Butowsky of Chapwood Capital Investment Management, and Karl Rove.   The skepticism increased because the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ U-6, which measures unemployed and underemployed, stayed stuck at 14.7%.  (Jenna Lee, “Happening Now”, Fox Business News (“FNC”), 10/5/12); Jason Ma, “Payroll Gains Slow; Jobless Rate Falls On Part-Time Spike,” Investor Business Daily(“IBD”), 10/8/12, p1.  Furthermore, the number of Americans that are unemployed, stopped looking and underemployed (working part time) went up by 100,000 from 23.1 million to 23.2 million.

Reporting on CNBC, Doug McKelway noted that unemployed people dropped by 456,000 while only 114,000 new jobs were created.  That means there are 344,000 persons who were unaccounted for. Id.  They just conveniently disappeared.  Dean Baker from the Economic and Policy Research Center said, “The jump in employment reported in September was almost certainly a statistical fluke.”  Id.  Diane Swonk, Chief Economist at Mesirow Financial, pointed out that while almost 600,000 part time jobs were reported on the Household Survey, only 104,000 new private sector jobs were allegedly created in the Payroll Survey.  That number was not enough to absorb all the new job entrants, let alone lower the unemployment rate from 8.2% in August to allegedly 7.8% in September.  She also stated that manufacturing was not doing well, and she predicted a sluggish 4^th quarter GDP.  “Squawk on the Street,” FNC, 10/5/12.   In fact manufacturing lost 16,000 jobs in September and 22,000 in August.  Jason Ma, “Part-Time Work Surge Sets Up One-Time Jobless Plunge,” Posted 4:46, Investors.com, 10/5/12; Jason Ma, “Payroll Gains Slow; Jobless Rate Falls On Part-Time Spike,” IBD, 10/8/12, p.1.  Together with the anemic GDP growth of around 2%, Obama’s jobs report does not add up and is not credible.  Many people are now suggesting the Obama Administration has cooked the books on this jobs report to win the election.  Some even mentioned that the closeness to Obama’s dismal performance in Wednesday night’s debate may be the reason.  Doing anything to win the election, so that he will have “more flexibility after the election,” has been Obama’s standard practice.

Romney’s staff also dismissed the report as an example of a stalled economy.  The Romney statement went on to say, “This is not what a real recovery looks like.  We created fewer jobs in September than in August, and fewer jobs in August than in July, and we’ve lost over 600,000 manufacturing jobs since President Obama took office.  If not for all of the people who have simply dropped out of the labor force, the real unemployment rate would be closer to 11%.” “Happening Now,” FNC, 10/5/12.

This has been the slowest and most sluggish recovery since the Great Depression.  Not surprisingly, the same leftwing, progressive policies that failed for Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt, also failed for Obama.  You can’t tax, borrow, and spend your out of a recession.  If it was that easy, every country in the world would be able to do it.  That policy is now failing in Europe and has failed everywhere and every time it has been tried.  It is failing in Greece, Spain and Italy and has repeatedly failed in South America.  Every dollar that is taxed or borrowed to spend is a dollar taken from the productive economy and quite often used for unproductive activities, such as the bankrupt Solyndra, Ener 1, Beacon Power, Abound Solar and other bankrupt green businesses.

Tim Phillips, the President of American for Prosperity, also referred to the sluggish recovery by stating, “This mornings job numbers report is further proof that President Obama’s big-government agenda is failing Americans.  This has been the most sluggish economic ‘recovery’ in recent history.  More Americans are unemployed under President Obama than under the past 11 presidents combined.”  Tim Phillips went on to say, “At this rate the Great Recession job gap won’t be closed until 2025.  There are still over 12 million Americans unemployed today!  With 4.8 million of those Americans having been unemployed for more than 27 weeks.”  Tim also remarked, “For many, the American Dream is disappearing.  Our economy is being stifled by the big spending and over-regulation of the Obama Administration’s policies.”  Tim Phillips, “Crisis at the American Dinner Table,” email 10/5/12.