Today in Washington D. C. - August 7, 2009 - Press & Obama Try To Claim Jobs Numbers Mean Recession Ending

Yesterday, the Senate voted 68-31 to confirm Judge Sonia Sotomayor of New York to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. Last night, the Senate voted 60-37 to pass H.R. 3435, a $2 billion extension to the “cash for clunkers” program. Prior to passage, senators rejected 6 amendments to the bill. An amendment from Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) to means test the program by restricting it to singles making less than $50,000 and families making less than $75,000 was tabled by a vote of 65-32. An amendment from Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) to terminate the program and evaluate it was defeated 40-57. And an amendment from Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) to allow vehicles traded-in under the program to be donated to needy families or charities instead of being destroyed was rejected by a vote of 41-56. When the Senate reconvenes on Sept. 8, it will address the tourism bill, S. 1023. Also, the health care bill and other items are being pursued in committee.

The latest economic numbers show that the unemployment rate for last month was 9.4%, a dip from June’s 9.5% rate. But reading some of the press coverage this morning, one might forget that the country still faces the worst unemployment in a generation.

In a headline, The Boston Globe wonders if this means “The end of the recession?” Politico says, “[T]he unexpectedly low unemployment figure announced Friday is a sign that the severity of the recession is easing, and provides a political boost to an administration that had been struggling to maintain public confidence in its recession-fighting efforts.”

Of course, all this dismisses the 247,000 jobs that were lost last month as well as other signals of the ailing economy. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics release, “The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) rose by 584,000 over the month to 5.0 million.” According to BLS, “there were 796,000 discouraged workers in July, up by 335,000 over the past 12 months. . . . Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them.” The release also notes that 52,000 manufacturing jobs and 76,000 construction jobs were lost in July.

Given all of this data, it’s hard to then say that the economy is turning around, let alone that “the recession is finally ending.” Yet the Obama administration is already trying to claim that any economic improvements are due to its budget-busting stimulus bill. Politico writes today, “Now the White House has a major economic statistic to point to as it touts the success of its stimulus spending this year.” Appearing on Fox News this morning, Cristina Romer, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said, “What I think [these numbers] really should put an end to is the talk that the stimulus we’ve had, the actions that we have taken, aren’t working.” When the GDP numbers came out last week, President Obama said, “But the GDP also revealed that in the last few months, the economy has done measurably better than we had thought, better than expected. And as many economists will tell you, that part of the progress is directly attributable to the Recovery Act.”

However, CNN pointed out this week that “[j]ust $120.4 billion, or 15% of the stimulus total, has actually been paid out so far . . . .” And the money that has been paid out never seems to go where it was designed to: “[L]ess than half the federal highway money announced so far is directed toward those high-unemployment, low-income areas, according to an AP analysis” from July. And The Denver Post reported earlier this week that, according to the White House, the stimulus was supposed to create 59,000 jobs in Colorado. But “state officials can link fewer than 1,000 new full-time-equivalent positions to stimulus spending.”

It’s certainly a good thing to hear that fewer jobs were lost than expected last month. Today President Obama again took to the air to say we are doing good, things are recovering, and trust us. It is interesting that President Obama seems to be the only person that can repeatedly must be on TV selling one plan or another. Who is he really trying to convince. He has repeated his campaign slogan over and over in his speeches. It’s certainly a good thing to hear that fewer jobs were lost than expected last month. But for press outlets and Obama to declare that the recession is over requires ignoring a great deal of negative data points. And the administration’s attempts to link any improvement to the stimulus bill simply don’t add up.

---

Tags: government healthcare, jobs, recession, confirmermation, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, SCOTUS, US Congress, US Senate, Washington D.C. To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!