4/10/08

You Too Can Be Duped By Numbers
By: Mark W Adams


Do they really think we're that stupid, or are they really that stupid? The following chart is now being tossed around Wingnuttistan as "proof" that Democrats are just a deceitful bunch of partisan hacks who will say anything to seize power, that it's not the economy, but the politics, stupid.

Guess what's missing.
Key Labor Market Statistics in 1996 and 2008
March 1996 March 2008
1. U.S. Unemployment Rate 5.5% 5.1%
2. Number of Long-Term Unemployed 1.33 million 1.28 million
3. Average Weeks Unemployed 17.3 weeks 16.2 weeks
4. Median Weeks Unemployed 8.3 weeks 8.1 weeks
5. Not in Labor Force because discouraged over job prospects 451,000 401,000
6. Democrats calling for Extended Unemployment Benefits? No Yes
7. President’s Party Affiliation Democrat Republican
If you said "where are the rend lines?", you get a coupon good for one pony next January.

When Clinton took office, the
unemployment rate was at 7.3%, not far off it's post WWII high. It headed consistently south under Clintonomics, reaching 3.9% when he finished his term, almost the all time low.

As Shrub took over it has steadily climbed, tapered off prior to his reelection bid, rose and leveled off as the war worsened and the GOP faced losing Congress (wadda co-inky-dink), then spiked upward, is still on the rise and is virtually guaranteed to rise further as we face his second (and a predicted much longer and deeper) recession.

See, in March of '96, things were better than before and the future looked bright. Now, not so much.

If it's just the politics, it's the bad and irresponsible politics, stupid.

1 Comment:

shep said...

I love the politics. Let the wingnuts keep telling the public: "What are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?" Maybe we'll get lucky and the public will make the right choice for a change.