- President Bush, attempting to obscure his record as the
worst economic steward since Herbert Hoover, has become so desperate that
he is exploring ways to manipulate statistics.[1] Just days after Bush
reneged on his pledge to create 2.6 million jobs[2] and said with a straight
face that "5.6% unemployment is a good national number,"[3] the
New York Times uncovered a White House report showing that the president
is considering re-classifying low-paid fast food jobs as "manufacturing
jobs"[4] as a way to hide the massive manufacturing job losses that
have occurred during his term.
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- As CBS News reports, "Since the month President
Bush was inaugurated, the economy has lost about 2.7 million manufacturing
jobs."[5] But if the president enacts the statistical change he is
considering, this number would be purposely obscured because lower-paying
fast food jobs would be added to make the real manufacturing losses look
smaller. Of course, fast food jobs typically pay much less and have fewer
benefits than real manufacturing jobs, meaning the statistical change would
also obscure the fact that, under Bush, "in 48 of the 50 states, jobs
in higher-paying industries have given way to jobs in lower-paying industries."[6]
All told, jobs in growing industries like lower-paid service sector/fast
food jobs are paying 21% less than contracting industries like real manufacturing.
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- The president's efforts to manipulate statistics and
mislead Americans are also getting a boost from his allies on Capitol Hill.
Earlier this month, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Don Nickles (R-OK)
pointed to an optimistic "household" jobs survey as proof that
"we're at an all-time high in employment" and that "the
employment situation has improved rather substantially."[7] The problem
is that Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said definitively that
"payroll data" - not the household survey - "is the series
which you have to follow" in order to be accurate. The payroll data
shows "a loss of more than two million jobs since 2001."
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- Sources: 1. "George Walker Hoover?", Slate,
04/30/2003. http://slate.msn.com/id/2082321/ 2. "Bush Backs Off Forecast
of 2.6M New Jobs", ABC News, 02/18/2004. http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20040218_1948.html
3. Remarks by the President to the National Governors Association, 02/23/2004.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/02/20040223-3.html 4. "In
the New Economics: Fast-Food Factories?", New York Times, 02/20/2004.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/20/business/20jobs.html?pagewanted=print&position=
5. "Building Blue-CollarÖBurgers?", CBS News, 02/20/2004.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/02/20/politics/main601336.shtml 6.
Economic Snapshots, 01/21/2004. http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_snapshots_archive_01212004
7. "Two Tales of American Jobs", New York Times, 02/22/2004.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/22/business/yourmoney/22view.html
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- http://www.misleader.org/daily_mislead/read.asp?fn=df02242004.html
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