A month ago, when an encouraging jobs report was released, Mitt Romney went on the attack -- it didn't matter how many jobs were created, he said, what matters is the unemployment rate. In that case, job growth exceeded expectations, but since the jobless rate ticked up a fraction of a point, the GOP candidate felt somehow vindicated.
This morning, Romney and Republicans are saying the exact opposite -- what matters is how many jobs were created, not the unemployment rate, which inched lower.
When it comes to intellectual seriousness and consistency, this is a ridiculous way of presenting information to the public.
That said, for many Americans who don't keep up with the details, the unemployment is, for all intents and purposes, the only figure that matters, because it's what they most closely associate with the health of the economy. And as of this morning, the unemployment rate is down to 8.1% -- the lowest it's been since President Obama took office.
I received some emails this morning asking why this isn't great news. After all, for quite a while, Republicans have incessantly pointed to this figure to attack the president, and with the jobless rate nearing a four-year low, Democrats, the argument goes, should be thrilled.
I'm afraid it's not that simple.
When the unemployment rate goes down because of a sharp increase in newly-employed Americans, that's good news. When the unemployment rate goes down because more Americans have left the workforce and have given up, that's the opposite of good news.
It's why the unemployment rate itself may be widely recognized, but it's hardly the best metric -- when the economy grows, there are more job openings, and more workers re-enter the job market, the unemployment rate can actually go up, even though the conditions are getting better. Likewise, the unemployment rate can go down when things are getting worse. That's not what always happens -- I don't want readers to get the impression that a growing unemployment rate is somehow something to celebrate -- but it's one of the factors that makes this specific metric, on a month-to-month basis, dubious.
When the monthly jobs report is published, the number to keep an eye on isn't the one that reinforces partisan's preferred political narrative or makes Mitt Romney happy. The number to watch is how many jobs are being created.
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". When the unemployment rate goes down because more Americans have left the workforce and have given up, that's the opposite of good news."
wonders if the number of retirees are accounted for in the leaving workforce number?
U6 is down as well, all be it .3%
That was exactly my question! Might not be much but we ARE talking baby boomers (HUGE population) reaching retirement age right now)
...and just how do they figure out who has "given up" finding a job? I always wondered about that. All in all, to me this is good news...slow and steady wins the race. These GOP idiots expect unemployment to go to 4% in a month (which MIGHT happen if you did a massive New Deal-type approach for job creation, something I wholeheartedly support).
I gave up looking for a job years ago -- I've been self-supporting, self-employed and paying the extra tax that entails since 2004. I know a lot of people like me who have decided that there are better ways than a weekly paycheck signed by someone else over the past two years. There are a LOT of companies out there who used to have work done by employees, but now "contract" it out -- the people who take those aren't looking for "jobs", but they are working and making money.
And while I know that we seasonally adjust figures, I wonder how many of those who "left the workforce" last month did so to return to their classes.
You also have to consider people who had been on unemployment and termed out, or who were no longer eligible for benefits because their state's UE rate dropped below an agreed-upon rate.
From what I have read, the unemployement rate reflects the number of people let go by government agencies now that much of the stimulus money has been exhausted. And a majority of these new unemployed are women. This is exactly what the
Republcians hoped for when they refused to renew some of the stimulus programs or to create new ones.
Many forces at play, but a big cause is baby boomers retiring: 65% of Americans who have left the job market since the recession began in 2007 do not want a job. And now that the stock market has boomed under Obama, retirement plans are up significantly in value since he took office, and baby boomers are able to retire. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/the-incredible-shrinking-labor-force/2012/05/04/gIQANXAy1T_blog.html
The truth is too frightening for the GOP. They have even failed at obstruction. The economy though not great is getting better. If they lose they will need some policy successes to run on in 2016. Telling America they succeeded in making POB a 2 term president though true is hardly going to ignite there base.
Not for nothing, let's say the shoe was on the other foot, and a Democratic candidate was pouncing on jobs numbers even as his own party deliberately quashed a bill that could create in the neighborhood of a million jobs. Is there any doubt that that candidate would be asked in every single interview how he felt about his party suppressing American jobs for purely political purposes? And yet, Mitt Romney, as far as I know, has not been asked to address this even once. It still amazes me that he expects to ascend to the presidency on the shoulders of his party having actively worked against the best interests of the country over these past few years.
That's the teapub party policies. They get to call the shots and the questions anyone in media are ALLOWED to ask because they control it all. It's the old double standard. It works on any group they want suppressed and always has.
Is anyone surprised that the Republicans would spin the jobs report to show the economy in the worst possible light? Given past spins on just about everything, the GOP doesn't really need any facts; they just make up their own!
Of course Romney would change his position on what's important, unemployment rate vs. job creation. That's hardly a shocker either. He changes his position on everything! Heck, he even blasts ObamaCare while telling us how wonderful RomneyCare is, even though both programs are pretty much the same. And that's only one example.
Fact - 150,000 new jobs are needed each month just to take care of the population growth.
Fact - The Unemployment rate only went down because the labor department said 400,000 people who were looking for work last month have given up.
Fact - Job creation is lower than last year
Fact - High paying manufacturing jobs declined
Fact - They revised the jobs creation over the last 2 months DOWN 41,000 jobs
Fact - The trend is BAD, not good
We have not turned a corner as per our great VP - we are losing ground!
The Republican Tea Party in the House and Republican Senate, have not lifted a finger to help people get back to work, they have stood by and watched the American Citizens "SUFFER" while they lay in wait for OBAMA to fail..These"REPUBLICAN" reminds me of Christmas time, you go shopping for all kinds of goodies and there on the corner, at the side of the street, is a "ROBBER" to steal what you have worked hard to build, This REPUBLICAN CONGRESS, they have been the problem..they should be brought up on charges of TREASON...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-A09a_gHJc
This is a Republican Minority Leader's GOAL:
I Think this is worth repeating.
CM
No matter what you say the dems had 2 years of complete control & passed the stimulas package which they said would fix the problem. DID IT? Oh! But wait it was harder than Obama thought. Obama deserve another crack at it because he really didn't understand the true problems the first time around. Obama will do better, and remember that when in 2016 it is still not better, that it was harder than we thought the second time around too & you must elect the VP, Pres because the Dems need a third crack at it.
You have no clue - the president is the one that was suppose to find a way, he did not. What will change if he has a second term? NOTHING!
Wolf - Just curious, but is it harder or easier to distort the truth when you attempt to mislead people? The Democrats did not have a 60 vote supermajority for 2 years, they barely had it for 4 of the 24 months, and even then you have a more diverse Democrat party than you do GOP (i.e. they don't march in lockstep). If you would read the analysis by economists, they would say that the stimulus did help, but it wasn't big enough to fully stem the problems that were faced upon President Obama taking office.
So I guess an economy that was bleeding jobs then is better than one that is (slowly) adding them now? An economy which had a -9.0% GDP rate is better than one that is slowly growing now? Come on, at least *try* to make your trolling better please.
Grey Coyote,
There you go again, trying to rewrite history. Two years of "complete" control? Take a look at the 111th Congress. The Democrats only had 58% of the votes in both the House and the Senate.
Do you know how many votes are needed for cloture??? Look it up!
And then look up the number of "holds" and filibusters for 111th and 112th Congresses.
"complete control" my arse!! The Republicans have been obstructionists since the day Obama took office - remember Mc Connell's statement about his single most important goal which was not to help the people of the United States, not to help create jobs, not to help our military, but to make Obama a one term president?
If you REALLY want to blame anyone for the economic situation, why don't you look to your Republican buddies. And now, after seeing what they've done for this country for the last four years, you want to give them TOTAL control???? Are you NUTS????
Gray Wolf: It does not matter what you say, The Republicans have obstructed from DAY #1, McConnell " THE #1 Priority is to make OBAMA a ONE TERM PRESIDENT." now, you live with that....
Democrats had a 4-month super-majority, not 2 years. Republicans filibustered nearly everything the President has tried to get through. The sluggish economy is solely THEIR fault.
I think Obama only them for 133 days...not two years
Actually, Gray Wolf is really quite inaccurate. Considering the fight for the MN seat between Franken and Coleman, the 5 week vacation that all of Congress took, and the void left by the death of Ted Kennedy, the Dems had control for less than 2 months.
Actually, he didn't have a flilibuster proof majority for two years. It was more like 7 months. It was close but Al Franken was held up in MN over a recount and then Ted Kennedy died. He pushed through the one thing he thought was most important, healthcare. You can't blame him for not getting much done when the Republican party platform was to say no to everything, even bills they supported. And if you thought things were bad because the stimulus didn't do much, can you imagine if nobody did anything? We probably would have been on our way to a depression rather than a recession.
Greywolf
The Democrats actually had 133 days of control. That's not two years. Sorry.
The Republicans in the Senate of the 112th Congress have invoked cloture more than the four previous Senates combined. QED: Obstructionism. Also, please note McConnell's quote that the number one priority was to make Obama a one term president. Not jobs. Not the economy. Not the country.
In Clinton's terms, it takes a lot of brass to criticize Obama for what the Republicans have done to the country.
For anyone else who feels like they should continue to perpetuate the mystical idea of "two years of complete control," please read this and pass along the information.
http://538refugees.wordpress.com/2011/06/22/the-democratic-super-majority-myth/
Greywolf, the one stimulus package was not enough. What was needed was a series of stimulus bills, just as Paul Ryan described. He is a great salesman for Keynesian recovery spending, better than Obama. He understands and explains that as long as the economy is bad, the government needs to step in and spend, spend, spend until the economy recovers, that there is plenty of time to after the recovery to reduce the deficit and debt. We should fallow Paul Ryan's prescription for recovering the economy: massive deficit spending.
You're all making this so complicated. If the argument is that Democrats were in control for 2 years and nothing got fixed then the inverse of that statement is that the following 2 years Republicans were in control. By Republicans own logic that means they are responsible for all terrible economic outcomes at this point in time. Hang them by their own petard- I appreciate that liberals always want to give the benefit of the doubt and debate, but honestly you're using wayyyy more mental power than what's necessary.
Well we have about 10 different counts on how many days the Dems had control. Only agreement is that he did have a period of time with control.
Republican have not had complete control in living memory as far as I know.
Then neither have Democrats.
If you state that Democrats had control for 2 years then you inversely imply that the next 2 years Republicans had control. And if Republicans had control that means you are arguing that they are to blame. You aren't paying attention to what it is that you're arguing. Instead you are just trying to attack Democrats and because of this you made a rather hilarious claim that directly contradicted your attempted defense.
Given now your second attempted defense that leads us to 2 possibilities:
A. Republicans are equally at fault; anything you state about Democrats in regards to the economy is mutually applicable to Republicans
B. Republicans are singularly at fault; they have had control and are therefore to blame for all current economic problems
96,000 new jobs is just a crappy number, well below 150,000 needed to keep up with population growth or below the current pace of 139,000. The downtick in the unemployment rate to 8.1% due to unemployed job seekers giving up looking is nothing to cheer about. Our economy is in a malaise.
So what you need to do now Hank is to vote in a Democratic majority in the House, and vote to increase the Democratic majority in the Senate, so that we can get these do-nothing Republicans out of the way, and get back to getting the country roaring again. Are you in?
That a great plan
Double down on failure!!!
@Gray Wolf, please name even a single action House Republicans have taken to participate in improving the economic recovery.
maybe the republicans should pass a jobs bill like they said they would instead of trying to make Obama a one term president.
Tell that to one that just got a job...sure beats a loss.
Great! Now that you have complained, what is your solution? See, bitching is easy. Fixing the problem is the tough part. one thing that would help is a massive infrastructure program, and I mean massive. We will have to spend the money at some point in the future, and it will only get more expensive the longer we wait. Why not do it now when the interest rates are practically zero? Heck, just bring the sewer systems in the country up to 21st century standards would be a huge boost to the economy, let alone roads and bridges and train corridors and tunnels, etc.
What is your idea?
grey wolf..go to hell
I do find it interesting that people are only mentioning the current numbers, and not making a comparison to just one year ago. As of August 2011, our unemployment rate was at 9.1 - we're definitely doing better, whether it's 8.3. or 8.1 you want to refer to. You should never view economic data without context.
Christine - 400,000 unemployed giving up looking for work vs 96,000 new jobs looks like a net decline of 306,000 jobs and an increase in unemployment. The Jobs Bill is just a terrible enabling piece of crappy legislation which postpones needed state government workers layoffs from happening. States have to balance their budgets and the only way they can balance their decrease in revenue is to cut their expenses. However since the Feds don't bother to exhibit any fiscal discipline on both sides of the aisle, let's just pass the states' deficits to Uncle Sam - that is not self sustaining and is payback to to the unions.
No BO's anti-business policies are what has kept the private sector from taking risks and hiring. What's eluded BO is the virtuous cycle that happens in normal expansions when revenues grow leading to companies hiring, leading to increased demand leading to more revenue and hiring. Instead revenue has grown anemically and employers have not hired because they can wring more productivity out of the same number or less workers cause every employed worker is too scared sht*tless to seek another job. (That would be the 'take this job and shove it' index whic is at an all time low). The increase in costs of the healthcare mandate, increased regulations and much discussed increases in taxes on those making over $250K have caused hiring managers/owners to sit on their hands. There is no incentive for companies to a hire additional workers because of the higher marginal cost of those new workers.
The answer is fire the current president and hire a new one. To quote the hackneyed Einstein quote, "the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again, but to expect a different result". We need new policies and ideas because the current ones are not working.
Would someone please cite where everyone is getting the data that "people gave up looking for work" in the unemployment report today.
That is such a ridiculous statement. What do people just decide to sit in the corner and die? I can see an unemployed person saying, you know, this looking for work thing and getting a check from the unemployment office is just too hard, i think i am just going to give up and not eat any more. Really!!!
I have looked for data to support this statement and i can find nothing but the quote, and the last time i checked just because someone says something does not make it true. Oh that's right if you REPEAT IT it makes it true.. Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice..............................nope nothing!!
Keith here is the link for the BLS release. Enjoy!
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
If unemployment is a plague, the GOP are certainly withholding medicine until the 'right people' die. Vote the bastards off the island.
The administration blew having it all. House, Senate and Presidency?
I can only conclude you're broadcasting from a parallel universe, given that you consider improvement in nearly every economic indicator and the achievement of near-universal healthcare to be anything but measureable progress.
When was that, during the 4 months that the ACA was passed?
Multiple answer Romney is at it again
Here is one reason that maybe the jobs report wasn't so great: Almost anyone who has ever looked for a job knows that it is near impossible to get one in the summer or during the holidays because so many folks are out of the office. I will be more interested in seeing what the numbers are in September/October.
CM2200611
Thank you happen to agree with you as im sure a whole lot of good people in our country do as well. The Republican Tea Party in the House and Republican Senate, have not lifted a finger to help people get back to work, they have stood by and watched the American Citizens "SUFFER" while they lay in wait for OBAMA to fail..These"REPUBLICAN" reminds me of Christmas time, you go shopping for all kinds of goodies and there on the corner, at the side of the street, is a "ROBBER" to steal what you have worked hard to build, This REPUBLICAN CONGRESS, they have been the problem..they should be brought up on charges of TREASON...
Ahh yes. The old "failure" line. I don't call voting 30 some times for repealing health care and not passing a SINGLE jobs bill a sign that republicans will try to improve anything.
And don't forget all the bills that lyin ryan and akin pushed through limiting women's health rights. They've never been about jobs, just controlling women's reproductive health rights.
What is the GOP plan??? They blocked the jobs bill right??
Trans-vaginal ultrasound specialist jobs.
Excellent point. We'll need lots of those.
Where are the "facts" that people "just quit trying", "have just dropped out" I want real information, not just made up.
The figures are all based on household surveys that ask if people in the house have looked for a job in the past four weeks. If you've looked for a job but haven't found one, you're counted as unemployed. If you don't have a job, but haven't actively looked for one in the past four weeks, you join the ranks of the "discouraged." It doesn't matter what your reason is for not looking for a job when you don't have one, you're part of the "available work force" that is not "participating" in it. It includes students who have returned to school, people who decided to take early retirement and people who are genuinely discouraged and have given up looking for work because they can't find one. The numbers are especially high among older people who have been laid off, because no one will hire them, and among those who have a specialized skill set in an industry that is not adding jobs.
It kills me to see the Republicants crying about the economy, when they voted down the president's job act. They saw the stimulus worked, hell when GW was in office our vice president candidate, voted for it then. Why didn't they vote again for it? Early on, our nation was full of hope, when President Obama took office, and hell the first year, he got stuff done, Lilly Ledbetter, the auto bailout, then the carpet baggers swooped in with their corporate money, and stopped everything, and suddenly a house was divided. Think about it, they even voted against the Domestic violence act, which has been in effect since the 90's, I am one of those who have had the services of that act and it is still very needed especially with the way Republicants voice everything as if it's the gloom and doom patrole. With their obstructionism they have successfully chipped away at what semblence of hope we started with, and made us doubt our own sanity, all of a sudden while talking about jobs, were talking about abortion, no wonder people tuned out. Ran Paul did this, when he placed an abortion bill on our highway bill, wtf? What does our roads and infastructure and hiring more teachers and firemen, have to do with a womans right to choose what healthcare decisions to do with her body? They want to ban abortion, ban birth control, and cut snap benefits for low income, that's a real good plan, let's let, low income people keep having children, and then cut ofof their assistance so those poor children grow up angry, if they grow up and don't starve. That takes a particularly sick person, to stand back and watch suffering and ask for more? Take off the rose colored glasses, GW screwed us over, Ken and Barbie, I mean Mitt Romney and John Bonehead, want to watch you suffer, and better yet, they don't think you know what's right for yourself, and just accept the fact that your poor and low income that's as far as you'll get in their Republicantopia.
There is work out there, the problem as I see it are the employers taking advantage of workers and paying $5 or more LESS than the job is worth.
I make $32 an hour and I see jobs doing the same thing I do for $10 to $17 an hour instead. These companies aren't doing bad either I checked them out financially, they are beginning to suffer from unAmerican teapartism.
Minimum wage was enacted for teenagers to have spending money NOT for people to live on. We are not serfs, get the corporations out of our schools and put your money where your mouth is and see to it that American children are educated!
Did you know that there are countries that celebrate good grades over football? Hello are we the next after the third world???
It's definitely not the great news economy-wise we all hope for (GOP excluded), but it's far from devastating big picture-wise. There should not be a single person in this country that would rather be where we were 4 years ago as opposed to now. And while we can claw and bite at each other over the economy and it's progress at will, there is so much more going on with regard to social policy, national security, and global policy that Obama has excelled at over the last four years. But Republicans seem convinced that the economy is all that matters, and they'll take Romney's far reaching promises to fix that as gospel, the rest be damned.
Rethugs are not convinced. What they ultimately want is CONTROL and doing away with the safety nets in this country. They want to do away with Social Security Medicare, Medicaid ( any or you have a parent in a nursing home? ) SNAP, and all the programs designed to feed our nation's children. The list is endless. This will be a very sad country indeed if the rethugs have their way. And by the way, another thing that does not get much notice in the lyinryan budget, doing away with your home mortgage tax deduction. STEALING even more money from homeowners.
The economy is THE most important issue. Remember Clinton's "it's the economy, stupid"? After Clinton got his shellacking by Newt and his Contract with America after his first mid-term election, Clinton pivoted to the center and he turned into a moderate Republican president by signing Newt's welfare reform, NAFTA and working with republicans to get legislation passed. Those 6 years coincided with a robust recovery and a surge in capital gains tax revenue for the fed and states due to a tech stock bubble which resulted in budget surpluses.
Growth in the economy with revenues cover up a lot of waste and graft of excess government spending.
If you break the numbers down further, the unemployment rate for those with disabilities is even higher, closer to 65% and this does not take into consideration one's gender or race. When an economy sours, they are often the first to be let go because of the perceived idea that they are less able to accept change, not able to do the work, or their intelligence is deficient. I will clarify not all employers think this way but many do whether openly or not. ADA is meant to help those with disabilities but in today's economy it can be used against job seekers. In the eyes of some employers, they see it as an expense to make reasonable accommodations. In reality, some expenses are minimal. Sen. Tom Harken from Iowa recently spoke on a PBS program regarding the extremely high unemployment rate among those with disabilities.
People with disabilities usually have incredibly high unemployment rates to start with, though. That is part of the context that needs to apply here. Generally speaking at any one given point in time in the employment cycle individuals with disabilities and mental illness will have the highest unemployment rate. It's not gender specific, gender specific, or socioeconomic specific. In fact people who have mental handicaps, as an example, but have master's degrees are still less likely to be hired than their non mentally handicapped peers
I don't know how you'd fix this problem: people have prejudices that should not exist. But something has to be done, I agree whole heartedly.
"When the unemployment rate goes down because more Americans have left the workforce and have given up, that's the opposite of good news."
Many of us aren't leaving the workforce because we've given up. The baby boomers are retiring and leaving the workforce in droves now. Those who were afraid to retire because of the unstable economy two and three years ago are feeling more secure about retiring now. At least I am, and I'm at the front end of the baby boomers... born in 1948. And that's good news. I expect due to the baby boomer exodus the unemployment rate will continue to decrease... or stabilize at the very least.
The need for jobs and economic growth is not new, it began four years before Obama took office and peaked during the great recession, in a consumer driven economy lower employment makes the economy spiral downwards that is why the Administration tried to seed the economy with job creation in public and publicly assisted jobs--even 500,000 would make many ripples in the economy, 1 million would be a spring board for a decade of growth. Republicans have blocked jobs in Congress, cut jobs in state government-- even our precious resource- the teachers, and allies in the corporate sector have managed businesses to coincidentally cut jobs before the elections, Hewlett Packard for example cutting 10,000 jobs. Point is true and needs to be spoken more often- the GOP has taken a wrecking ball to the US economy and has abandoned its elective responsibility to respond to the public welfare- pretending to pursue some vague ideology about national debt, but the way to erase debt is to grow the economy, increase taxes on the rich( one trader earned $3 billion a year ago in derivatives, he can pay more and we fire fewer teachers...yes?) - feed the job creators-- the American families who buy stuff like houses and cars clothes and raise families-- the REAL JOB CREATORS the same people the GOP has been putting, or keeping out of work.
HDM! I got NO COMMENT! You said EVERYTHING I WAS GONNA SAY, but I was busy waiting for my boss to step outside. YOU ROCK! Thanks....now I go back to work...!
Nice stated...
some vague ideology about national debt? You must be kidding! There is the 16 Trillion plus the 84 Trillion in unfunded liabilities. If we do not take control of spending, no one will have anything - see Greece! Even the Rommey Plan grows the Gov't, there are no real cuts at all, just reducing the planned increases. You are all living in a dream world where the Gov't should cure all ills, make all outcomes the same & never have to pay for anything. The part about the rich is also a red herring, you could take 100% of the income from the top 1-2% and it would not cover the annual shortfall. I have still never seen what "their fair share" is. I am far from rich and do believe the tax laws should be changed but to say the 3-5% increase that Obama wants will take care of the problem is just plain silly.
Really, Grey Coyote, talk about red herrings!!!
We are NOT Greece - not even close. Many of Greece's problems occurred when they left the drachma and went to the euro - Surprise - Surprise - they didn't get as many euros as they were counting on in the money exchange (go figure when dealing with banks!!) which immediately put their government into debt. Because Greece is a SMALL country with very few resources, they basically had nothing to sell to get out of that initial debt. Then as they had to borrow to finance that debt, the cycle began. And then there is that "austerity" thing - yep, that is really done a lot for Greece, hasn't it??? It may keep their banks solvent for a "little while" and they borrow on their credit card to make the previous month's credit card payments, but it has done NOTHING, and I repeat NOTHING for the Greek people and NEVER WILL. Greece WILL default again and will go back to the drachma and THEN and ONLY THEN will Greece stand a chance of getting a decent economy back!!
And you think we are like Greece?
Our debt was created by George Bush deciding that only soldiers fight wars, not the US people. He paid for the war by passing the debt down to his grandchildren - how nice was that????? And then the GREED bubble broke, and here we are! NONE OF THIS HAD ANYTHING TO DO WITH DEMOCRATS - it was ALL Republicans, starting with Reagan who decided to "deregulate" so that the greediest of us all could get "theirs" at the expense of the rest of this country.
Obama has been left to try to clean this up and he has been thwarted at EVERY STEP by the same people who created this mess!! And YES, the GREEDIEST among us SHOULD pay more - after all, while the rest of us were suffering and trying to figure out to feed our families, they were still buying their Cesnas and yachts.
Yes, all of our taxes should be increased in order to pay for Afghanistan and Iraq - two wars we ALL should have paid for - NOT OUR GRANDCHILDREN!!! If those wars were worth fighting, then they were worth paying for by ALL of us, not just the soldiers and their families!!
AND YES, we should spend MORE MONEY ON STIMULUS RIGHT NOW!! Money is REALLY CHEAP right now - the cheapest it has ever been - if there was any time to borrow to fix our economy, it is NOW!
If you REALLY WANT to turn us into GREECE, you and your Republican friends plans will do it!!!
You REALLY NEED to get a CLUE about what happened in the past and how the world works - maybe you would understand a little better and no make such SILLY posts!!!
no make such SILLY posts!!!
OMG
You have no sense of history - the problem is 70 years in the making - we never finished paying for WWII or Korea or that great Dem adventure in Southeast Asia - The driving force for the debt is the social programs which are not paid for. To blame one party or the other exclusively is just ignoring the facts.
But as a great man once said
DONT WORRY, BE HAPPY right up to the point when the whole house of cards falls on top of our heads - & by the way when it happens & it will, the poor will take the hardest fall as they always do.
Grey Coyote,
I've been posting here a long time and everyone here knows I make typos, but JUST FOR YOU, I will clarify:
"not make such SILLY posts!!!
There, do you understand now????
Leave it to a Republican to pick out a typo and miss the rest of the post!!!
The driving force for the debt is not the social program, it is the military spending that is out of control!
And I agree, when the whole house of cards that the Republicans have built falls, it will be on the poor!!!
By the way, you could cut the complete military budget & you will still not get to balance.
Math, my friend has a great way of bring out the truth!
This is not a game, I fear for my Grandchildren, whose lives, our gutless elected officials on both sides are destroying.
.....you do realize that you could cut all federal assistance programs including social security and medicare and you would still not get to a balance. This argument doesn't deny the fact that such cuts would help us get there, but you are just whining that it's not absolute. So because it's not 100% it therefore shouldn't be done.
I wonder how our founder's would've acted if this had been their attitude. Well we could start a new country, but that country will invariably make mistakes therefore let's not even try!
Ironically this attitude is the attitude of a quitter. Aren't Republicans supposed to be the hard working, pull themselves up by the bootstraps class? Apparently not
For the record the driving forces of the debt are the tax cuts, the medicare advantage program, the 2 unfunded wars, and the recession. Nothing more and nothing less.
Why isn't anyone talking about the 3 million jobs that are reportedly out there, but unable to be filled due to lack of qualified personnel?
What effect might this have on the unemployment rate were we able to fill half of these jobs? I realize it may not be politically expedient to hammer on this, as it may appear to demonstrate a disconnect between education and current business needs with regards to policy, but isn't that exactly what Obama did last night by mentioning this? He's suggesting we ought to better align ourselves with these emerging fields so that we are able to capitalize on the jobs that ARE OUT THERE!
That actually is part of what he was hinting at, or at least I'd assume. Granted the 3 million jobs available won't automatically mean that everyone who lost their job will get a new job. No matter what there are still more people seeking jobs than there are jobs available. But that would drop us probably two or three full percentage points if every one of those positions were filled. The problem, however, is in education. Without getting adults access to education those adults cannot go out, get trained for a new job, and then fill the roles. And jobs themselves aren't willing to fork the money over for employees they aren't sure will take the training and leave. Bill Clinton was on the Daily Show talking about this and how if we could find a way to get businesses and potential employees (not just those currently looking, but future prospective employees as per population growth as well) networking together and if we could micromanage the money so that we're getting potential employees training in exchange for, say, a 6 month contract or a 1 year contract then according to Clinton we could be putting something like 8-12 million people to work. The problem, however, as Clinton explained is that this would require an unprecedented level of involvement of state government, federal government, and businesses. And that is going to be hard to do since it seems many states (read Republican controlled states) will automatically balk at the idea of participating in such a program under the guise of freedom. And many employers (read those who are crazy enough to do things like drop healthcare even though their costs went down thanks to ACA, but did so under the guise that ACA was going to bankrupt them, yadda yadd) will not participate because it's socialism/communism/fascism/whateverism. The political climate is most of what's killing us. Although I don't know how you fix that.
There are many MANY small businesses that are negatively impacting the unemployment rates by taking their employees off payroll, instead paying them in cash. NO TAXES PAID..... employees are still working the same hours.....even more since they get more pay in their pocket. Illegal, hurts everyone and they still get away with it. They don't care. It's no different than MITT avoiding paying taxes by Swiss/Caymen Island accounts. Un-American! Ask around......this happens everywhere in the USA. Yes, it makes me angry.
And that's not counting the thousands of companies who do the same thing legally by shifting jobs formerly done by employees to "contractors." While there are advantages to working as a contractor rather than as an employee -- e.g., I get to dictate my own work hours and work from wherever I want -- it also means that I pay the full employee share of FICA plus half the employer share .. costs me more, but the government still gets less -- and the person who hires me pays none of it.
I gave up looking for a "real job" long ago and have had to survive on waiting tables despite a very good education. Sadly I have even been fired from that one (I guess I'm not very good @ it!) and will be homeless for the 3rd time in 3 years. This hopelessness is not reflected in the statistics and I am tired of both. I have managed to keep phone connected in case I get a call back from any of the dozens of apps I've completed but all I get are calls from collectors suggesting I pay past bills from former home (forclosed on) with a credit card or get "my husband" (lol) to pay them.
The sad part about the Republicans is when the unemployment rate hit 10% they used that to help defeat the Democrats in the 2010 congressional races. Just as Rachel has said the Republicans use the numbers they want to use when they want to use them but they forget to use the facts
The unempl. rate started falling around the same time the house was taken over by the Republicans.
This economy is tough to fix when people are cooperating and working on solutions... how much harder is it to fix when the new majority is 60 votes in the Senate and you have a Republican congress focused on about everything except getting a jobs bill passed.
Plus, in all previous recessions, public sector jobs grew to help keep people employed and paying their bills. This time around, the Republicans were able to cuts public jobs....