WSJ: Bush hopes voters notice economy! [poll]

This is too rich: over at Prof. Brad DeLong's excellent economics blog, he posts an excerpt from a Wall Street Journal article on the BushCo's attempts to re-focus people on the economy. Yes, you read that correctly, they want people to pay more attention to all the ways they're getting screwed.

I'd be rolling on the floor laughing at these thugs if I weren't so busy SCREAMING.

WSJ.com - Bush Hopes Voters Notice Economy: Dogged by Iraq, administration officials hit battlegrounds today touting job growth. "A body in every state," one aide says -- including the president in Louisiana, Treasury Secretary John Snow at an auto plant in Ohio and Commerce Secretary Don Evans at a town meeting in Florida. "The jobs situation is improving," but "it may take a little while before that perception is widely held," says campaign adviser Ralph Reed."...

DeLong comments:

What do they hope that voters notice about the economy? That the pure Republican congress cannot pass a budget resolution? That we have the worst employment growth performance since Herbert Hoover--1.5 million fewer nonfarm payroll jobs than at the start of 2001? That the Bush administration has spent its time passing very expensive tax cuts that do little to boost employment in the short run?

And to quote a comment on DeLong's post:

I just don't understand how they can be this incredibly dumb. From day one they've thought that economic perception--particularly the employment situation of all things--was spinnable from Washington. But people damn well know if they have a job or not. It's mind-boggling to me that these guys can be so idiotic that they think they can convince people they have jobs when they don't, and that their wages are rising when they aren't.

My take? They may be stupid but not for the above reason. First, they're stupid because they don't understand what's going on. They really do think the economy is getting better - all their CEO friends tell them profits are up and they're all getting fat bonuses this year. They read data and reports that says we're re-gaining jobs and the GDP is up. They don't bother to read the reports where all the bad news is:

• workers are getting meager or no raises (Economic Policy Institute wages report 2/05/2004)
• half the people who have found new jobs are making less than they were before (Center for American Progress Data Digest)
• the unemployment rate is closer to 10% than whatever number they pulled out of their ass (CAP: Working families disenchanted with labor market)
• 75% of the private sector jobs created since last April year are temp jobs! (CAP, quoting the Financial Times). Say it with me: 75% of the private sector jobs created in the past year are temp jobs. That usually means no sick days, no vacation days, no raises, no 401k, and really expensive health insurance. And yeah, you'd think these jobs would turn into permanent jobs, but not in my experience.

Second, they think WE'RE that stupid. That if they just keep up with the happy talk, we'll feel better about not having jobs or getting raises.

So, yeah, I'm noticing the economy. I've noticed I'm getting screwed over six ways til Sunday, with plenty of inflation on the way. So much stupid out there. Jesus fucking christ. It's like there's a stupid rain or something. Soon we shall all be completely stupid!

•  Job Numbers. Or just fudged numbers?

  See ogre's Diary entry on this subject:

  http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/5/11/123833/760
  

  by MediaFreeze on Fri May 21, 2004 at 03:55:23 PM PDT

•  These guys don't get it.

  1) The jobs reports are phony -- trumped up by part-time jobs

  2) Wages are down

  These guys sit in their offices and their boardrooms and they look only at GDP numbers and propogandized data.  Most people don't care what the GPD or the job numbers as reported by Washington say.  They only know that they, their family, or their friends have lost their job or been forced to take a lower paying one.  Moreover, they these Republicans don't realize that people view the economy in terms of their own financial situation and that sky rocketing health care costs are part of that perception.

  No matter how many statistics Bush cites, he's going to have a hard time convincing the middle class that the economy is doing what he wrongly believes it to be doing.
  

  by dcg on Fri May 21, 2004 at 04:00:25 PM PDT

•  poll

  That was a great diary, but the poll doesn't serve your thesis well. Despite all of the good points you made, there is in fact an increase in jobs in my neck of the woods, and I suspect most others. It's way too little, too late, of course.

  You might have asked: is the job situation better now in your area than it was when Bush entered office?

  Another point to be made: the rate of job growth right now is right about what it needs to be simply to keep up with the number of new American working age people. This is the best job growth in Bush's term, and we're basically treading water. Fantastic, guys, keep up the good work!

  by jd in nyc on Fri May 21, 2004 at 04:02:07 PM PDT

•  Jobs are up*, Dow is down

  I work at a newspaper and yes the job listings are up (*but they always are this time of year- howmany of the news are not seasonal jobs is an important question to ask but the media doesn't bother with those details). And I should hope the economy is finally picking up after 3 horrible years undeer Bush! The question is: Why is the stock market back under 10,000, and why doesn't the media want to talk about how, after all the hype and waiting and celebration as the Dow neared and surpassed "that important psychological barrier," we have fallen back under that mark despite, by most accounts, a "growing" economy?

  by Joe Willy on Fri May 21, 2004 at 04:03:10 PM PDT

  •  Stock market and jobs

    indicate different things. The stock market bears no necessary relationship to working/middle class prosperity or pain.

    As for the job reports, I do sense unemployment is higher than is indicated. This being said, I do think there has been an uptick in hiring - however, as has been said, the jobs created aren't necessarily good ones.

    Ben P

    by Ben P on Fri May 21, 2004 at 05:04:12 PM PDT

•  OK... in the tech sector...

  There are more jobs out there this month than last month... and the rates are dropping.  They figure they'll get the folks who have been unemployed longest and yell at them for being unemployed and tell them how grateful they should be to get anything... in the meantime keeping people from switching jobs (cuz who's going to jump from one job to the next for less money?) and continuing to threaten to offshore to India.

  Oh, yeah, big frigging improvement.  As I told my Republican friends, I'd be happy to take Clinton back, with all his baggage (like there was that much to begin with), if I got to get my Clinton paycheck back.

  Oddly, they're all worse off economically than 4 years ago, too.  Well, Republicans don't make a lot of sense, do they?

  by ultrageek on Fri May 21, 2004 at 04:14:18 PM PDT

•  AZ numbers in today's paper

  March jobless rate went from 4.9 to 5.4 percent.

  Jobs added were 9,200, 7300 of which are service jobs.  

  Yup, the economy is great as long as you want a job at McDonalds.

  by Wandering One on Fri May 21, 2004 at 05:27:14 PM PDT

  •  April jobless rate, not March. nt

    by Wandering One on Fri May 21, 2004 at 05:30:35 PM PDT

•  jobs

  i heard a story where a start-up tech company listed a job posting on a website, said that they wouldn't pay for any transportation, and still got over 500 applications, including one offering to pay airfare for just an interview.

  And thats from a company with less than 50 people in it.

  Its official.  The economy is desperate.

  by Demosthenes on Fri May 21, 2004 at 05:40:18 PM PDT

•  jobs in nyc area

  fwiw -- i've had two empl agencies call me recently for reference checks and specifically asked them if they were seeing an improvement.  both were quite emphatic that it was improving. also, a friend is a hr mgr at a publshing co and was complaining that several employees are leaving publishing for better jobs.

  by bkny on Fri May 21, 2004 at 06:14:56 PM PDT