Crumbs, Continued: Pelosi Belittles Strong US Economy With Lies

The U.S. economy has come roaring back under President Trump. That has Nancy Pelosi and fellow Democrats losing their minds.

In a press conference last Thursday, June 7, Pelosi was asked about the May unemployment figure of 3.8%, the lowest it has been in 18 years. A reporter asked her if she thought the low lever was a good thing.

Pelosi's odd response:

"This has happened before," she said, "The people say, 'Oh my goodness... the unemployment rate is down. Why isn't my purchasing power increasing?'"

"Because our economy will never fully reach its possibilities unless we increase the consumer confidence," she explained.

"This is one unusual time, and I follow it closely, where the unemployment rate is down but the dependence on subsidies -- whether it's food insecurity, housing subsidies and the rest -- has not gone down because of the wage stagnation."

"Unless we have a very significant increase in wages and bigger paychecks, we are going to increase the frustration of America's families because they'll be saying, 'Hip hip hooray, unemployment is down. What does that mean to me in my life? I need a bigger paycheck.' That's the apprehension American families have had for a while," she said. (Transcript via Real Clear Politics)

Pelosi's answer is, frankly, disconnected from reality. Has everybody's financial situation improved under Trump? Of course not, but Pelosi contradicts herself with that answer.

U.S. Labor Market Still In 'Deep Depression'

September 7, 2012 - Obama wants four more years to continue his failed economic policies. His campaign has said that his policies have succeeded. They have not, however. They have failed miserably. Sure, you may have heard today that the national average unemployment rate has "gone down" to 8.1% but the bad news is that the reduction is due in no small part to people just giving up and, as a result, no longer being counted officially in the unemployment numbers.

Click graph to enlarge it. Source: CalculatedRiskBlog

Obama has had nearly four years for his "hope and change" to work. It has not worked. The change has been catastrophic, and has caused hundreds of thousands of people to give up hope.

Like a demonic sadist, Obama now commands us to beg for more punishment. Whether or not he wins re-election in November will depend upon how many masochists go to the polls to vote for him.

"While the unemployment rate dropped to 8.1% from 8.3% in July, it was due to a big drop in the labor force participation rate (the share of Americans with a job or looking for one)," notes the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) today.  "If fewer Americans hadn’t given up looking for work, the unemployment rate would have risen."

The Guardian, a respected British newspaper, reports today that "The US economy added just 96,000 new jobs in August, far below economists' expectations and dealing a crushing blow to President Barack Obama after the close of the Democratic national convention."

That number - 96,000 - is pitiful indeed. That's an average of a mere 1,920 per state and it does not tell the story of jobs that were lost during the same time period, nor does that raw number tell anything about the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have just given up trying to find work in a horrifically bad economic environment. CNN Money noted today that, "The unemployment rate fell largely because 368,000 people stopped looking for work, many of them young people. Just 63.5% of the working-age population was either employed or actively looking for work -- a 30-year low."

In addition, says The Guardian, the increase of 96,000 jobs "is below population growth." To make matters even worse, "the figures for July and June were revised downwards." 

You can read the full depressing report at the Bureau of Labor Statistics website.

No, Really, Pat Quinn Still Sucks More Than Scott Walker. Really.

April 20, 2012 - There are a lot of news reports out there today claiming that the jobs and unemployment situation in Illinois is better than Wisconsin. Nearly all of them are wrong.

That's not my opinion, it's fact. The numbers in the table below prove it. In what seems to be a conspiratorial attempt by the leftist mainstream media to discredit Wisconsin's Governor Scott Walker, a Republican, the employment numbers released today are being spun so much that heads are spinning.

Two quick examples of the liberal media's spin come from NBC Chicago and Bloomberg News.

NBC's Edward McClelland wrote an op-ed piece published today titled "Illinois Beats Wisconsin In Job Creation." McClelland quoted Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn (a Democrat) as saying earlier this week that “Since Governor Walker took office, Wisconsin is dead last among the 50 states in job growth.”

Bloomberg's headline today, "Republican Whipping-Boy Illinois Beats Wisconsin on Jobs," caps a piece written by Tim Jones. Jones quoted Quinn as saying this about Wisconsin and Gov. Walker:  "“They have the worst job record in the whole country, dead last,” and  “We certainly don’t want to follow his [Walker's] prescriptions when it comes to economic growth.”

Both Jones and McClelland were, of course, referring to today's jobs numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But let's look at those numbers. They are not difficult to understand, unless you're a liberal buying into the lies of the Democrats and their allies in the media. Here are the unemployment rates (as percentages) for Illinois and Wisconsin for March 2012, February 2012 and March of last year:

Illinois March 2012 .... 8.8 Feb. 2012 ....... 9.1 March 2011 ....9.3

Wisconsin March 2012 .... 6.8 Feb. 2012 ....... 6.9 March 2011 .... 7.6

Look at the numbers. Both states have had a decrease in unemployment. Illinois went from a nightmarish 9.3 percent a year ago down to a still-nightmarish 8.8 percent, a decrease of 0.5 percent. In the same period, Wisconsin went from an awful 7.6 percent down to a still-bad 6.8 percent. 

Compare Wisconsin's lowered unemployment drop of 0.8 to that of 0.5 percent in Illinois and you have to wonder what the hell the media - and geniuses like Gov. Quinn - are talking about when they say that Wisconsin is sucking tailpipes. Wisconsin's drop in its unemployment rate has been, over the past 12 months, faster that in Illinois (0.8% versus 0.5% as shown above). The latest numbers show that Wisconsin's unemployment rate is a full two points lower than in Illinois.  Illinois is called "the Greece next door" by it's neighboring states. Nobody is comparing to Wisconsin to Greece. Not yet anyway.

Yes, I Could Use Your Help Again (Updated)

Update, April 12, 2012: I had a good job interview yesterday. That is, the interviewer was friendly and sent signals that I was in the running to get the job, with a small real estate company here in Chicago that is looking to fill a position quickly. I am, however, now down to $34.00 in my bank account as of this morning, I'm hoping desperately that they hire me. If I passed that first round of interviewing, there will be a second interview before they actually hire me. And so, friends, I am forced by circumstance to again ask for your help. If enough of you each give just one or two dollars it will keep me in food until, hopefully, I get that job... or find another. You can find the handy PayPal Donate Button in the sidebar here, to the right, or click here to give. Thanks in advance, and God bless.

Original Post:
It's still a rough job market out there, especially for a 57-year old dude like me (I don't care what Obama's propaganda machine says). And so I ask for your assistance, friends. Please help me to continue publishing  "Chicago News Bench" blog (since 2006). (Your help, of course, will also help to eat!) I am doing my best to keep up even as I continue my long  employment search. The occasional payment for advertising and contributions from good folks like you are all that's kept me going. Click here to make a contribution via PayPal. Your help is much appreciated! Thanks in advance, and God bless.

Greeting Cards and a Timely Song for the Unemployed

Obama promised us jobs. Perhaps, indirectly and accidentally, Obama's devastating economic policies have created a few new jobs at Hallmark. The greeting card giant now offers eight job loss-related sympathy cards, plus 20 e-cards with generic sympathy messages. All 28 items come up in a search for "job loss" on Hallmark's website. In addition, the Burns & Poe band had to hire a film crew to record the video for their song "I Need A Job." At least one cameraman and a grip can thank Obama for that gig.

Powerful Video Highlights Obama's Failures

This video, "Obama's Debt-End Bus Tour," is sure to tug at your heart strings. Well, okay, at your wallet chain. It's a production of the Republican National Committee (RNC), but that doesn't make the facts presented any less true.

Obama is touring the Midwest "on a new $1.1 million bus purchased by the Secret Service, an impenetrable-looking conveyance the size of a cross-country Greyhound, painted all in black, with dark tinted windows and flashing red and blue lights." (CBS News)  Isn't it nice to know that in these tough economic times, President Obama is not wasting taxpayer money on things like expensive new buses for his own personal campaign? Isn't it?

Jobs Claims Decrease Is Nothing To Cheer About

August 11, 2011 - The U.S. Department of Labor reported today that unemployment benefits claims "fell" for the week ending August 6. That's good news, right?  I don't think so, because the amount by which the numbers fell were so small that they are statistically insignificant. In fact, the number averages to a mere 140 fewer claims per each of the 50 states.

"Claims for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly dropped last week to a four-month low," a Bloomberg report noted today, "signaling the job market is being hampered by a lack of hiring rather than more firings. The number of applications for unemployment insurance payments fell 7,000 in the week ended Aug. 6 to 395,000, the fewest since early April..."  (My emphasis added.)

That 7,000 number is statistically insignificant. It's not enough to matter. 140 fewer claims per state is pitiful. The more significant number is the 395,000 new applications. Repeat: New applications. That averages to 7,900 per state. In other words, more than a third of a million new unemployment benefits claims were made in the week ending August 6.

Bloomberg's report also noted that the Labor Department’s jobless claims report also said that "the number of people continuing to collect benefits dropped by 60,000 in the week ended July 30 to 3.69 million."

That drop, however, includes a lot of people whose claims have simply expired, and people who have taken jobs that are not as good as those they previously held but now disqualify them for continuing benefits.

Why Your Neighbor Kid Is Unemployed

More than 500,000 illegal immigrants are ignoring court orders to leave the US. That's in addition, of course, to the tens of millions of illegal immigrants who are also in the US but just don't have court orders yet to leave. Look at the unemployment situation in your neighborhood, folks, and see how many teens are without work even though they're looking. Then go to your neighborhood pizzeria and look in the kitchen. Visit your local McDonalds. Look at them and see illegal immigrants taking jobs that, according to the Big Lie, "Americans don't want." Then ask those neighbor kids - the ones here legally, that is - if they'd like to have the jobs that the illegals have stolen from them. BOSTON – An estimated half-million immigrants are living in the United States in defiance of deportation orders....U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has stepped up efforts to catch fugitive aliens, as they are known, and now has about 100 "fugitive operations teams" around the country. In the past year, the teams have made 34,000 arrests, more than double the number two years ago. But there are still 560,000 such immigrants in the U.S. Fugitive aliens include people who, like Obama's aunt, sought asylum in the United States but were rejected and ordered to leave the country. Others were caught entering or living in this country illegally, and failed to show at their deportation hearings. Full Story from AP at Yahoo! News... RELATED: The evils of an amnesty for illegal immigrants

Unemployment Rate Up

Jobless rate highest in 4 years, payrolls drop," says this and many similar headlines. Does that stop Democrats nationwide from raising taxes on people? Nope. Will they ever learn? Nope. While people are hurting, the Daleys and Strogers just keep on punishing us.

Wall Street's Dark Day

Stocks tanked today, with the Dow industrials shedding 395 points, after oil prices spiked and the May jobs report showed a big jump in the unemployment rate, CNNMoney.com reports. The Dow lost 395 points, or 3.1 percent, its biggest one-day decline since February 2007. FULL REPORT...