John Kerry’s Claim of 3 Million Jobs Lost is False: McMahon Disproves Kerry’s Lost Jobs Claim

Special to FreeRepublic ^ | [3 April, 2004] | John Armor (Congressman Billybob)

[Congressman Billybob]

This subject has been all over FreeRepublic in the last few days. It will be all over the discussion shows on Sunday. This article will be on ChronWatch tomorrow. And it's on FR now.

Enjoy. (The new and double title format is for Google purposes.)

[Congressman Billybob]

Pinged for pinging purposes. J.

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[wingster]

Did anyone ever take that it was true? It's a democrat. Of course it's not true!

[clintonh8r]

Every time a RAT opens his lie-hole the lost jobs number gets bigger. They can't help themselves. Lying is part of being a liberal.

[dalebert]

Can anyone tell me why Republican leaders are not shouting this to the country? I am still wondering why all of a sudden the President is responsible for everyones job in America. If our leader are responsible for all the jobs in this country then Kerry's voting record comes in play and he is just as much to blame for the jobs he claims were lost. Of course Kerry would say" its not the jobs that were lost but the way they were lost that I disagree with."

[Lunatic Fringe]

So... given that the GDP has grown like a Texas weed for 9 straight quarters, do I believe 2.7 million jobs have been lost, or that 750,000 have been gained? I suspect the truth is somewhere in the middle.

[JulieRNR21]

I actually heard a delusional DemocRAT rant today that the country is in a major depression & people are starving........facts matter not a bit to them or Kerry......they follow the 'repeat the lie' approach.

BTW....excellent article!

[Cold Heat]

Good job!

I see you are getting the "why didn't Bush say that" comments.

Well, he has!

He has touched on all of this repeatedly, except for the stats about the number not looking for work.

It is the media who will not report this.

Plain and simple.

[My2Cents]

HI-OH!

[TomEwall]

"The current unemployment rate is 5.7% as of last Friday. Coincidentally, that is nearly identical to the average unemployment rate during the Clinton Administration, which the Democrats offer as the shining economic results that we have lost, and therefore ought to return to. If there really were three million people who had lost their jobs and not found new ones, the unemployment rate could not possibly stand at 5.7%."

This is so obvious, I don't know why I didn't think of it! Of course if the unemployment rate is the same, jobs couldn't have been lost. That would be impossible. In fact, some jobs would have had to have been created just to keep up with the population growth.

[raynearhood]

Outstanding article. I've actually heard this stuff said over and over on Fox News. Never on the major news machines. I wonder why?

[Bedford Forrest]

"You, sir, are far too intelligent to believe what you just said."

I don't think he was ever very intelligent. He has been a party line Brownshirt since he was 17 - not a sign of high intelligence in a youth and certainly not when practiced over a lifetime. Ernst Roehm is the perfect metaphor for Monsieur Jacques du Querry - totally convinced of his brilliance and his entitlement to the throne, right up until the moment of his sudden assumption of [political] room temperature. And even Hitlery could not effect du Querry's spectacular collapse. The man is doing it all by himself.

[Peach]

GREAT job.

I had this letter published in our local paper regarding jobs and the economy:

Despite the Democrat’s mantra that the economy is in trouble and that over 2.3 million jobs have disappeared, the truth is considerably different.

There are two primary measures of unemployment. The Department of Labor conducts a monthly Household Survey, which has always generated the official unemployment rate used by the government. This official survey shows 2.4 million jobs have been added to the work force between November ’02 and February ‘04. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) conducts its payroll survey by phoning businesses. It is unprecedented to use the BLS unemployment statistics when discussing America’s unemployment rate and yet this is where the Democrats are getting their 2.3 million lost jobs figure.

For example, had the unofficial BLS survey been used in the mid-90’s, we would have had a 12.8% unemployment rate using the same methodology. Instead, in 1996, the unemployment rate was 5.6%, the exact same rate as we have today.

The government began collecting unemployment data in 1939. Since that time, there has never been positive job growth two years after a recession ended. Never.

Other economic indicators are just as good:

-- The number of working Americans, 138.5 million, is a level never previously attained in our history.

-- The percentage of families living in poverty today averages 9.4%, a decrease of approximately 1.1% from the 90’s.

-- Home ownership is currently 68.6% which is an increase of 1.1% from the 90’s.

-- A manufacturing survey released in February showed US factories boomed at their highest level in 17 years. The Institute for Supply Management reported more and more factories were reporting hiring although it has not yet shown up in government employment statistics. Manufacturing makes up nearly one-fifth of the US economy.

-- The combined net worth of all US households is $44.4 trillion, the highest ever achieved.

-- Consumer prices (inflation) increased just 1.9% last year.

-- The stock market has advanced 45% in the last 12 months.

--The gross domestic product, the total goods and service produced in the US, increased in the 3rd quarter last year at an annual rate of 8.2% after inflation and 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Growth in the 90’s averaged a little better than 3% annually.

-- The wealthiest five percent of our population pays more than half the taxes, while people at the bottom half pay just 4% of all taxes in the country. Economists credit the recovering economy to the Bush tax cuts as opposed to what an increased regressive taxation on the nation’s wealthiest would have had on the economy.

-- The average wage of American workers is currently $15.40 vs. $11.80 during the 90’s.

Despite 9/11 and the over $500 billion it took out of our economy, it appears the economy is booming.

I will leave it to the reader to speculate why the media seems driven to repeat unchallenged the Democrat’s unemployment numbers and constant derision of the US economy.

[Choose Ye This Day]

The Dems don't like clear thinking, facts or reason.

John Kerry is deeply troubled that you are telling the truth.

[MegaSilver]

BUMP

[Peach]

Freepmail

[Koblenz]

I'm self employed, and thus unemployed by the first set of stats and employed by the second. Oh well... I am not the only one I know who is self-employed. I have no employees, although if I cannot do something, I'll hand it off to a friend in exchange for something like 5% of everything from that client. Adding employees is a costly process -- lots of regulations and crap to deal with. Many companies are moving more people to self employment. One company I worked for a few years ago is now a client, and they've got 4 or 5 self-employed people working part time. We all set our own hours, come and go as we please, and do the work. This company had NO self-employed people a few years ago. I work for them part time and others part time. There's a lot of use of "consultants". Employers benefits because they don't have to carry the extra costs. We consultants benefit because we can deduct more taxes, set our own hours, etc. I pay for my own health care plan, and I have to pay double FICA. But I can deduct legitimate business expenses: my car at 37.5 cents a mile when I go to a client, office supplies, my cable modem fee, my cell phone, and so on. I don't think I'll go back to full time employment anytime soon.

[WSGilcrest]

Man, is that real? That's one creepy picture.

[Choose Ye This Day]

I believe it's real. Looks like the one the mortician let get away, doesn't it?