White House Backs Off Job-Growth Forecast

[Loonman]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040218/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_jobs

By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent

WASHINGTON - The White House backed away Wednesday from its own prediction that the economy will add 2.6 million new jobs before the end of this year, saying the forecast was the work of number-crunchers and that President Bush (news - web sites) was not a statistician.

[Beetwasher]

1. Hahahahahaha!

Too funny...Oh the tangled we we weave....

[MidwestTransplant]

9. Didn't they just come up with that number a week or two ago?

[stevedeshazer]

28. They might want to bust a call to John Snow!

They just threw Snow, Don Evans, and Elaine Chao under a bus here....

Cabinet caravan touts successes in Northwest swing

The president's efforts to create jobs dominate what's billed as a two-day listening tour of the economically hard-hit region

<snip>

Four top Bush administration officials launched a two-day bus tour of Oregon and Washington on Tuesday, trumpeting the president's job-creation plan across one of the nation's most economically troubled and politically divided regions.

Treasury Secretary John Snow, Commerce Secretary Don Evans, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao and Small Business Administrator Hector Barreto declared a job recovery well under way as they rode through Eastern Washington toward Portland, where they will meet today with business leaders and workers being retrained.

"This economy is responding remarkably well," Snow said. "We're in a good growth path on jobs. We do what we can."

Snow said the administration projected 2.6 million jobs would be created this year, a number he said was corroborated by private-sector forecasts.

"I think we're going to create a lot of jobs," he said. "How many, I don't know. We're going to keep working on it."

http://www.oregonlive.com/business/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/business/1077109643127791.xml

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Of course he's not a statistician...nor math student, nor

truth teller....he hasn't got a brain.

[Arugula Latte]

25. nor is he a real president

...the unelected, incompetent, beady-eyed little fraud...

[patricia92243]

3. I can't imagine why!!!!!

[Cocoa]

4. the "unfrozen caveman lawyer" tactic

I'm not a statistician, all this number-crunching confuses me.

I like how the article mentions he's an MBA.

[The_Gopher]

31. Unfrozen caveman prez says...

Ladies and gentlemen, I am just a caveman. I fell on some ice and later got thawed out by some of your scientists. Your world frightens and confuses me! Sometimes when I go up in the sky in one of your mechanical birds, I think, 'Oh god, I've been swallowed by this bird, let me out!' I don't know, my primitive mind can't grasp these concepts. But I do know this. We must work to create a more robust and growing economy with more jobs. Now, will these jobs involve tracking and slaying mastadons, and will they provide a comprehensive health insurance plan? I'm not sure, I'm just a caveman. But I call on Congress to make my tax cuts permanent. Thankyou.

[Gman]

5. The MBA Bush couldn't see the problems at a glance

with the 2.6m figure? People with less than a high school education laughed at them.

[Itchinjim]

17. Bush* at Yale;

"Yesterday I could not even spell MBA, today I are one"

[denverbill]

18. ROFL. I might have to borrow that line, repeatedly:)

[Lefty_the_Right]

6. Dang! And I just told my cube mate yesterday

That I would vote for Bush* if he created 2.6 million jobs by November.

I guess I'll be voting for a Dem.
But as you all know, I knew I would be anyway.

There are no, and there never will be an example of supply side economics creating jobs.

Wealth in the hands of a few, sure. But jobs?

You'd have to be on hippy heroin to believe a fairy tale like that!

[Gman]

8. Hillbilly heroin has the same effect

ask Rush.

[callous taoboy]

7. Damn,

you almost expect to see smoke pouring out of His Fraudulency's ears, his eyes going twitchy, springs and wires and bolts sproinging from his head.

[bushisanidiot]

10. How Much More Stupid Can The Repukes Look? Retracting one lie after

another, using double-speak, planting false stories and acting surprised they turn out to be un-proven..

what idiots. i absolutely cannot believe anyone in their right mind would vote for a republican. they are clearly the party of lies and deceit..

[1songbird]

11. I hope this idiot doesn't use this as an excuse for more tax cuts. n/t

[Loonman]

12. They revised it to 3.8 million, backed off the revision....

...now backing off the original number.

When do the shell games stop with this administration?

[shanti]

13. pile it on, chimpy

it's stacking up!

[grannylib]

14. Oh surprise, surprise...just like the jobless claims keep getting quietly

revised upwards each week with no fanfare, when it was with great whoops and hollers that the 'new low' numbers were announced just the week before...strange...
Has anyone in this sorry misadministration ever told the truth about anything to anyone ever???

Bush's MBA must stand for More Bullshit Accounting.

[tom_paine]

15. Wow, that didn't take very long

They should just disavow their lies BEFORE they tell them.

It would save time...

[lebkuchen]

16. Then why not claim 5 million jobs in a year for good measure?

The Chimp isn't a statistician, so why go conservative on the numbers? Give us something to feel "confident" about!

[denverbill]

19. Neglected to mention the 2,600,000 jobs were in India and China.

Details, details. He's more of a big picture guy.

[Galley_Queen]

22. LOL @ Big Picture Guy

as in the kind you find in the Happy Caterpillar (or whatever).

ROTFLMAO!

[Jack The Tab]

20. Smirky's M.O. - Tell a big lie, get front page, aide retracts it..

and you see it on page B24 in your business section.

These folks and the media really have their dance down good.

[loudnclear]

21. Here he goes again...stating what he know to be untrue and then

shifting blame on someone else. And this is the mad that sends our children to war???? WAKE UP AMERICA!!!

[MrBenchley]

23. Shortest fuckin' recovery in history...barely a week

and its already over....

Now all this unelected drunk has to do is remind people worried about losing their savings, homes and cars how richer billionaires and jobs going to India make everything look better on paper.

[HootieMcBoob]

24. 2.6 million job related program activities

is I think what he really said :)

[Arugula Latte]

26. Good one!

LOL

[MrBenchley]

27. No, he only said possible job-related program activities....

and he never actually said they were imminent....

[Jacobin]

30. I think he said the job recovery was "gathering" and NO

he NEVER EVER said "imminent" so stop saying that.


:-)

[skypilot]

29. Not a statistician

Yeah, all that "fuzzy math" finally got to him. Asshole.

On edit: By the way, haven't his supporters ever heard the phrase "jerking us around"??? Why can't they see that that's what this is? That's what everything he does and says is.

[ProfessorGAC]

33. He's Not A Statistician. NO KIDDING!

He wouldn't be able to determine the average of 5 fives! Thanks for the newsflash, Georgieboy.

What an idiot this guy is.
The Professor

[ProfessorGAC]

32. Gee, Ya Think?!?!?

Li'l Georgie just makes up a number, now they have to backtrack, realizing that by November, when that number is only achievable by adding 75% of those jobs in December, there is a campaign wedge to show his lack of knowledge and stewardship. So, they now have to reel it back in.

The more this guy opens his mouth, the dumber he appears.
The Professor

[wabeewoman]

34. He really did make up those numbers

because they made it look like there were no job losses under his administration. Coincidence?? I don't think so...

[74dodgedart]

35. There you go using that fuzzy math again

Dubya never was very good with 'rithmatic

[LiberalFighter]

36. White House Backs Off CEA Prediction Of “Average” Job Growth:

Contrary to reports, CEA predicted 3.6 million — not 2.6 million — jobs would be created in 2004 SOURCE: This analysis is a joint release by the Economic Policy Institute and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

• The CEA’s prediction is being widely characterized as predicting that a total of 2.6 million jobs — or 217,000 jobs per month — will be created in 2004; that characterization is inaccurate. The CEA’s prediction assumed that an average of 300,000 jobs per month would be created from November 2003 through December 2004. (Just three months into that prediction, job creation has fallen 689,000 short of the CEA forecast.)
  
  
• Specifically, CEA predicted that the number of jobs in the economy would average 132.7 million in 2004, reflecting a 2.6 million increase from its average level in 2003. There are 130.2 million jobs right now; for the economy to average 132.7 million jobs in 2004, job growth would have to equal 460,000 per month.
  
  
• As a recent report we released documents, the Administration has consistently been predicting that robust job growth is around the corner, and has consistently been wrong.<3> In 2003, for example, the CEA predicted that the average number of jobs in 2003 would be 1.7 million higher than its average in 2002. Instead, it was 400,000 lower.
  
  
  There has been substantial confusion concerning this issue, with many analysts and stories incorrectly suggesting that the CEA projects a total of 2.6 million jobs to be created this year. In effect, these reports are stating that the CEA has predicted there will be 132.7 million jobs at the end of 2004 when, in fact, the CEA has predicted that the average number of jobs for all of 2004 will be 132.7 million. To reach this average figure, there will have to be many more jobs than 132.7 million in December 2004, as there are 2.5 million fewer jobs than that right now.

[radfringe]

37. Missing an important detail --- Bush* SIGNED off on the report

remember the scandals over Enron, Worldcom etc? remember the excuse the CEO's used regarding their companies financial reports? remember that the SEC now requires CEO's to sign off on those financial reports as a method to hold CEO's responsible and accountable?

The report released by Council of Economic Advisers has bush*'s signature on it.

This is the man that GOPer's tout as being a CEO - the first MBA pResident. The man they are now pushing as a leader...

Did bush* even read the report before signing? Did he understand what the report said? Did he ask any questions before signing off on the report? Was he engaged at all regarding the report?

whether or not the numbers were a result of bureaucratic "number crunchers" or whether or not bush* is a statitician doesn't make any difference - bush* signed off on the report. This makes him responsible and accountable for the report.