Check the Facts, Johnny!

[Tigermike 3,035]

Check the Facts, Johnny!

July 9, 2004

Now that the economy is growing and creating new jobs, John Kerry has been saying that the quality of those jobs is "much lower" than the quality of jobs that have been lost. A recent ad by some Kerry allies even shows a middle-aged man reporting for his new job wearing a paper hat at a seedy-looking burger joint.

Numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics actually shows solid growth in employment in relatively higher -paying occupations including construction workers, health-care professionals, business managers, and teachers, and virtually no growth at all in relatively lower-paying occupations including office clerks and assembly-line workers. It's the most detailed breakdown yet -- looking at 154 different job and industry groupings. These statistics are a FactCheck.org exclusive -- supplied to them by BLS at their request and not previously published.

Another statistic often overlooked by Bush critics is that average earnings of rank-and-file private-sector workers have increased since Bush took office, though modestly. Even after adjusting for inflation -- including the rising price of gasoline --those earnings are up just over 1% since January 2001, despite the recession and the initially slow recovery.

These statistics come from a different BLS survey and cover a somewhat different time period than the figures cited by Kerry. They are going to be controversial and won't settle the good jobs/bad jobs argument. There's also plenty of evidence that large numbers of Americans are indeed worse off now than they were before 2001, including the fact that more than 1 million Americans have been out of work for a full year or more.

May 14, 2004

Bush supported tax breaks for Enron "instead of protecting pensions." ? That's wrong. Bush signed legislation changes to address weaknesses in 401(k) practices. Bush also supports additional legislation to allow employees who get company stock as a retirement benefit to sell it and diversify their investments, and to require companies to offer investment advice to employees from independent outsiders.

A "Real" Rx Drug Benefit? The ad falsely states that the bill gives billions to drug companies "instead of giving seniors real prescription drug benefits." Democrats may not consider this new benefit sufficient, but they can't say that this estimated $534 billion benefit, isn't "real."

Bush gave contracts to Halliburton "instead of fighting corporate corruption" ? The Bush administration has been convicting or indicting executives of Enron, Arthur Andersen, Tyco International, Worldcom, Adelphia Communications Corporation, Credit Suisse First Boston, HealthSouth Corporation and others, including Martha Stewart. The Department of Justice says it has brought charges against 20 executives of Enron alone, and its Corporate Fraud Task Force says it has won convictions of more than 250 persons to date. Bush also signed the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation in 2002, imposing stringent new accounting rules in the wake of the Arthur Andersen scandal.

May 3, 2004

Kerry released two new ads. The facts in the ads are selective: both spots stress Kerry's Vietnam service and decorations for valor, but barely mention of the subsequent antiwar actions that launched his political career.

One over-the-top claim is that Kerry's vote for the 1993 Clinton economic plan "created 20 million new jobs." In reality, many factors led to the economic boom of the 1990's, as even Clinton himself often acknowledged.

April 24, 2004

Kerry Ad on Abortion: Fuzzy Math

Kerry claims the Supreme Court is "just one vote away" from overturning abortion rights for women. Make that TWO votes. Only three of the current nine judges have ever voted to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion.

April 13, 2004

Kerry invents a new "Misery Index.". Why?? Because he didn't like the results of the old one - so he just re-wrote the rules to fit his needs - and make Bush's economic record look, well, "miserable". The classic "misery index" -- adds together the unemployment rate and the rate of inflation -- currently it's better than it's been in most years since World War II. In fact, it's less than half the miserable level reached in 1980, the last year of the Carter administration, and better than in any of Clinton's first four years.

April 3, 2004

A Kerry ad has Bush saying that sending jobs overseas "makes sense." But Bush didn't say that.

The quote is actually from Bush's Council of Economic Advisers. The Kerry campaign claims Bush signed the report containing those words, but that's wrong, too.

March 24, 2004

A Democratic National Committee Internet ad falsely states as "fact" that Bush "cuts key education programs by 27%." Actually, the budget for the Department of Education has grown 58% under Bush, and he's proposing another 5% increase next year, including sizeable increases in spending for children from low-income families and for special education for disabled children.

The ad also falsely claims Bush "slashes job training by 24%." Actually, Bush is proposing to roll most of that money to a new job-training initiative at 2-year community colleges.

The DNC ad also flunks the logic test, criticizing Bush both for increasing the federal deficit and also for not spending more -- which of course would increase the deficit even more

http://www.kerryquotes.com/factcheck.htm

He Flips & He Flops....

http://www.kerryquotes.com/flipflops.htm

[CShine 0]

Geez, haven't you got anything more recent than six weeks old? As it happens, payroll growth really was bad in July.

I can't help noticing a recent phenomenon. Republicans scream that the economy is doing great when it's really not. Democrats scream that the economy is in the toilet when it's really not. Anyone with a level head can see that the economy could be a whole lot better and it could be a whole lot worse and that the spin being put on it by the press on the far right and far left is obviously just that, spin. Both the Pubs and the Dems are desperate to mischaracterize the state of the economy for their own political gain. I see it every day in the press and I see it every day on this board.

[Tigermike 3,035]

Geez, haven't you got anything more recent than six weeks old? As it happens, payroll growth really was bad in July.

I can't help noticing a recent phenomenon. Republicans scream that the economy is doing great when it's really not. Democrats scream that the economy is in the toilet when it's really not. Anyone with a level head can see that the economy could be a whole lot better and it could be a whole lot worse and that the spin being put on it by the press on the far right and far left is obviously just that, spin. Both the Pubs and the Dems are desperate to mischaracterize the state of the economy for their own political gain. I see it every day in the press and I see it every day on this board.

Kind of like you did with the title & link?

U.S. Payroll Growth Is Weak in July

I noticed you choose to post it as " payroll growth really was bad in July." That was close, but the article says Weak, not bad.

[TexasTiger 12,949]

Geez, haven't you got anything more recent than six weeks old? As it happens, payroll growth really was bad in July.

I can't help noticing a recent phenomenon. Republicans scream that the economy is doing great when it's really not. Democrats scream that the economy is in the toilet when it's really not. Anyone with a level head can see that the economy could be a whole lot better and it could be a whole lot worse and that the spin being put on it by the press on the far right and far left is obviously just that, spin. Both the Pubs and the Dems are desperate to mischaracterize the state of the economy for their own political gain.  I see it every day in the press and I see it every day on this board.

Kind of like you did with the title & link?

U.S. Payroll Growth Is Weak in July

I noticed you choose to post it as " payroll growth really was bad in July." That was close, but the article says Weak, not bad.

So you're saying weak is good?

[Tigermike 3,035]

So you're saying weak is good?

Weak is better than bad isn't it, wouldn't you agree?

Here are three quotes from the article.

"But it's still growth. It's not like we're in a recession."

"It will take a while longer for the economy to move out of the soft patch," Sung Won Sohn of Wells Fargo & Co. said in a report. "However, the recent economic weakness is temporary."

"Ironically, lower rates tied to the weak job growth might help stimulate the economy further. That's because more people could jump into the market for mortgage loans, either to buy a house or to refinance their existing mortgage."