Misleading Stats on Jobs Editorial

Recently, I had occasion to write a letter to the editor of my hometown newspaper regarding an editorial that gave a very optomistic report on the nation's jobless rate which has dropped to 7.7%.  Additionally, the editorial also took in the fact that Speaker Boehner and the President were 'negotiating' on this fiscal cliff they love to talk about and commented that, "the GOP must accept higher tax rates on the wealthiest 2 percent of taxpayers."  

 

What follows is my response, which was printed, minus the highlighted section(s):

 

Letter to the Editor

December 10, 2012

The editorial comment regarding jobs that posted in the News and Advance on Sunday, Dec. 9^th really deserves comment because the initial sentence – “…..news Friday morning from the Bureau of Labor Statistics was good, at least on the face:……drop in jobless rate to 7.7 percent”, is misleading enough to take the reader’s mind off the most important fact in the third paragraph which is, “…..more long-term unemployed people simply stopping their job searches after months of failure.” 

 

 

How misleading is the ‘jobless rate’ when it does not factor in the ACTUAL number of people unemployed and when are we going to get the truth from the government and the liberal press?  Maybe the editor can also explain what “while technically in recovery mode” means to the millions of people who want a job but are still jobless, on welfare and food stamps and those who are just coming into the welfare and jobless state.  What recovery mode – the one that created more federal government jobs, higher pay and benefits to government workers and pay-back to the unions for votes while leaving out the “middle class” that the President says he wants to protect from those nasty Republicans?

 

The editor’s comment “The GOP must accept higher tax rates on the wealthiest 2 percent of taxpayers” is almost comedic.  Why must they?  Who is doing the real obstructing here – the Republicans or Harry Reid and his Democrat cohorts in the Senate?  Who has refused to pass a budget for 3 plus years; who has refused to even present at least 15 jobs bills sent up from the House since the Republicans have become the majority there?  Who has either refused to vote on or actually voted down numerous House bills intended to turn the economy around and lower the deficit? Just recently, Harry Reid denied the Senate an opportunity to vote on the President’s plan stating that Minority Leader McConnell’s request to vote on the plan was a “stunt”.  Who just recently said, “There’s not going to be an agreement without rates going up”?  It was none other than Timothy Geithner, Treasury Secretary and a Democrat, that’s who.  I realize the Republicans aren’t as pure as the driven snow but could we at least get some of the facts right? 

 

Congress should not raise taxes on the ‘wealthiest 2%’ because ultimately, that money supply will not last for obvious reasons and it can’t do the job anyway, it’s just a political talking point; the debt ceiling should not be raised, particularly now; any and all government programs that are duplicative, redundant or not necessary should be done away with (did you ever look at all the ‘programs’ the government has?) Congress must prepare a balanced budget, every year as they are supposed to.  That’s part of their job.  I can understand why Senator Reid, et al don’t want a balanced budget or any budget for that matter – how could they just spend, spend, spend without having to account for it?  

 

Conservatives must act and stop re-acting to the liberal ideologues whose main purpose is to  fundamentally transform this country into something it was never meant to be.  I am as “flabbergasted” at John Boehner’s conservative purge as he was when Geithner outlined the President’s budget deal.