Venango County Tea Party Patriots

A non-partisan, non-profit, non-member, association dedicated to educating the public and promoting the principles of fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government and free market economics, and all other lawful activities.

Labor Department

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Numbers Don’t Lie

Twenty years ago, when Democrats tried to oust an incumbent Republican president from office, they questioned his economic stewardship. Vice presidential candidate Al Gore famously bellowed: “Everything that ought to be down is up, and everything that should be up is down!”

The argument seems more relevant today than it was in late 1992.

Republicans are trying to fire an incumbent Democrat president amid the worst economic recovery since the Depression. And the economic news is not getting better for Barack Obama as the race heads into the final lap.

This was not the case on the eve of the 1992 election, when economic reports revealed both GDP and payrolls were in fact growing at a robust clip following a comparably mild recession.

Still, Gore indicted the record of President George H.W. Bush with stat after stat – stale as they were – showing lackluster economic performance.

He zeroed in jobs and incomes to show indicators that were wrongly down, and unemployment and the federal deficit to highlight what was errantly up.

Applying Gore’s test to Obama’s economic record produces far worse results.
Click here for a breakdown.

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Unemployment Rises in 44 States

Unemployment increased in 44 states last month, proving that the rise in joblessness is being felt by everyone, according to a new report from Bloomberg.

Alabama and Alaska were hit the hardest, both registering a 0.5 percent increase in jobless claims, according to data released on Friday by the Labor Department. Meanwhile, California and Michigan led the 31 states that experienced payroll increases.

“Across the nation, the unemployment rate rose to 8.3 percent in July, a five-month high, even as employment increased by the most since February,” Bloomberg reports.

“Faster hiring is needed to spur consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the economy, and to help reduce elevated joblessness that remains a concern for Federal Reserve policy makers,” the report adds.

But — but — what about growing payrolls?

The gains are “probably not enough to make really significant sort of progress on improving unemployment rates,” Jeremy Lawson, senior U.S. economist at BNP Paribas in New York, told Bloomberg. “Firms are waiting on more clarity as to what general direction things are headed.”

Read more.