Fishy Unemployment Numbers

I'm Smelling Something...

OK…  you know the mainstream media will be trumpeting this particular success: Unemployment rate drops from 10% to 9.7%.  Better yet, the seaonally-adjusted underemployment rate dropped from 17.3% to 16.5%.  In the article I linked, economists are sighing with relief, saying that maybe – just maybe, the long winter of the Great Recession is over.

But…

The numbers aren’t adding up.  Somehow, the non-farm American workforce lost 20,000 jobs in January…  and yet, unemployment went DOWN?  How can you LOSE jobs and have unemployment drop as well?  In a sane world, when people lose their jobs, that means that unemployment goes up.

I was thinking, “did retirements somehow affect the rate?”  Then, Ed over at HotAir pointed something out…

In January, the number of persons unemployed due to job loss decreased by 378,000 to 9.3 million. Nearly all of this decline occurred among permanent job losers.  (See table A-11.)

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) continued to trend up in January, reaching 6.3 million. Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of long-term unemployed has risen by 5.0 million. (See table A-12.)

To put it in simple terms: they fiddled with the numbers.  Think of it in terms of fractions: if we have a pie and I cut it into thirds and say you can have a piece, that means you have 1/3 of the pie.  If however, I fiddle with the denominator and take away a piece and say you can have a piece…  then I can say that you have 1/2 of the pie!  Yay!

Except that you still only have 1/3 of the pie.

In this case, the government shrank the number by fiddling with the number of available jobs and by “seasonally-adjusting” things.  The facts, kids, is that if we compare January 2009 to January 2010, the underemployment rate has gone up by  between 2 and 3.5%, depending on which statistic you follow.

If we’d dropped an actual 0.3% in unemployment, it would be reasonable cause for a grin or two.  No one wants to see people unemployed and if the number had actually dropped, I’d be inclined to join the festivities…  but it all just smells like someone cooking the books.  You simply cannot lose payroll members and decrease unemployment at the same time without fiddling with the total jobs available.

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They Just Dont Get it

Was reading the news today and came across a little article that barely has made any headlines or any mention at all. Intrigued, I read it and found it startling. Most recently there has been public outcry over spending ourselves into oblivion, raising the national debt, increasing the deficit and basically government waste. Do our elected representatives hear us? Apparently most of the liberal ones do not as this article demonstrates, they have utter disregard for us. Just another reason to vote the bums out in November:

House Votes to Raise Debt Limit

Fox News Quote”

The House of Representatives Thursday voted to raise the debt limit by $1.9 trillion. That vote raises the debt ceiling to $14.3 trillion, a new high for the amount of debt the U.S. has ever carried.

As recently as 2001, the U.S. debt was only at $5.7 trillion. But exploded throughout the past decade after Sept. 11, 2001, amid record spending by the Bush and Obama administrations.

If Congress doesn’t hike the debt ceiling, the U.S. would be unable make good on Social Security and Medicare payments.

The Senate approved the debt limit increase in mid-January on a 60-40 party-line vote.

The House vote was a close one, 217-212. All Republicans and more than 30 Democrats voted against raising the debt ceiling.

Moderate and fiscally-conscious Democrats were suspect of voting to hike the debt.

The debt ceiling increase is part of a broader bill that would impose so-called “PAYGO” rules on the House. In other words, the House would have to pay for all tax cuts or programs it creates so they are budget neutral.

Fox News End Quote”

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Brown takes the People’s Seat Today

Scott Brown, Senator Elect, from the state of Massachusetts, will be sworn in today at 5pm. This, in effect, ends the Democratic Party’s Super Majority in the Senate. This move returns the US Senate back to the way it was designed to be handled: slow and in gridlock.

While the liberal news media demands to say that this seat was Ted Kennedy’s Seat, it is in fact the people’s seat, which is what Scott Brown inferred during his campaign. It’s like the liberal news media just cannot let go the fact that a Republican now occupies this seat. Ted Kennedy wasn’t born in this seat, as many senators came before him, and many will come after. Why do they continue to hang on to this notion of it being Kennedy’s seat? Is it because they can see the writing on the wall? That effectively 35 Senate seats are considered toss-ups for this November election? That the Democratic party is going to be in a world of hurt this coming November? Of course the ironic thing is that Scott Brown is now occupying what once used to be Ted Kennedy’s Senate Office. Or should we call this the people’s senate office?

The truth is that the Dem’s do see the writing on the wall. While Obama continues to push healthcare and blame the economy on the Republicans, the Dems are trying to distance themselves away from Obama. Healthcare is on hiatus, and an real bipartisan rejection exists against Obama’s Budget. Does anyone actually want to support Obama’s Budget Plan that ends Bush Tax Cuts, ends Tax Exempt Charitable Deductions and ends House Mortgage Deductions? If you think the economy is bad now, you are looking at not a recession, but a true depression if this 1.6 Trillon Budget Deficit monstrosity passes. FDR spirit lives and is now called The Big O. Of course it took 4 terms and 12 years for FDR to make government into a massive behemoth, it takes Obama only one term and a year to ruin this country. Can anyone say ideologue and Socialist? I know you can.

Despite the wacky news lines that comes out every day, and Obama’s fake Job Town hall meetings (be ready when the revised National Job Loss numbers increase Friday by 850,000 people, Obama can’t fudge his numbers anymore!), we have to be ready to stay vigilant and make our voices heard this November. The people of Illinois are prepared, as in Obama’s Home State, Democratic Primary Voting has plunged to record lows while Republican Primary Voting are experiencing new highs. If it is this bad in Virginia, New Jersey, Massachusetts and now Illinois, we can only hope it will be this bad for Obama and the Dems this November. I’m ready, are you?

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3.8 TRILLLLOOOON DOLLARS

I was reading Business Insider today and they had a link to John Boehner’s Web Site. He is the House Republican Leader and he has a nice article titled “10 Things Every American Should Know about Obama’s Budget”. You can read the full article here:

John Boener’s Site

The first three are eye-opening in themselves. basically to sum it up: a $3.8 TRILLION spending spree by the Federal Government, $2 TRILLION Dollars in tax hikes, including for those making less than $250K, and a record Budget Deficit of $1.6 Trillion Dollars.

These so-called Spending Freezes by Obama is just double talk. It’s less than any margin of error in a Trillion Dollar Spending Spree.

Obama wants Republicans to join him in a Bipartisan Effort to run the Government. Anyone that joins him is just going to Run our Country into the Ground. The Chinese already own a great portion of our debt. Continue on Obama’s Path and you can kiss our Superpower status goodbye.

Obama has stated he rather be a 1 term good President than a two term mediocre President. I really think he is already proving he should only be a 1 term president. If he thinks he is being good now, I would hate to see his mediocre. Lets make a statement in 2010 that shows how “good” we think he really is! And in 2012, let’s make sure we don’t experience any more of his “mediocre” policies. In my books, I have one term for his Presidency: Failure.

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I’m Still Alive

I know it’s been a few days since I posted. Life’s been a little busy and hectic. Thankfully, NCMike and 1Jason1 are kickin’ butt…

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