Rather than listen to what the politicians want us to believe, let’s see what the numbers say and what is reality, not what they say reality is. These types of exercises in numbers and reality will be more and more important over the coming months as the political class starts putting up their various smoke screens prior to the November elections to and mask distort their failures as leaders and government employees.
Our first set of depressing numbers were reviewed yesterday at the following link:
Let’s see what stories today’s sets of numbers holds:
1) A recent analysis of the July, 2014 government job numbers by writer James Sherk, writing for the Heritage Foundation, found that the economy and its related numbers are still in a jobs rut:
- The July report estimated private employers added a net 209,000 jobs in July.
- This is about the average growth over the past 12 months.
- While the number is positive and somewhat decent, it is down from the 300,000 jobs added in June and just barely enough to keep up with the expansion of the population.
- Average workweeks remained flat (34.5 hours) and average hourly earnings rose one cent to $24.45, indicating a so-so job market and economic growth situation. June’s encouraging numbers now look like statistical noise around a trend of more modest growth
- According to Mr. Sherk’s assessment, “The labor market appears to be neither accelerating nor decelerating.” In other words, the rut continues.
- The number of part time workers also remained basically unchanged, another indication that nothing is changing for the better in the economy.
2) Let’s move away form the economy and talk about one of the other big crises going on, the massive influx of illegal aliens on our southern border. We keep hearing about the rantings and ravings from both sides of the political spectrum in Washington on what to do with these foreigners hitting our borders, but what do average Americans think about the situation and what should be done?
This is particularly important for two related reasons:
- Obama has threatened to unilaterally give these people on the border amnesty, shelter, asylum, whatever you want to call it regardless of what Congress or the American people think.
- This unilateral action would likely be illegal but more importantly have substantial impacts on November elections.
- Overwhelmingly, Americans do not agree with Obama’s amnesty plans.
- 81% of Americans believe the border crisis, including unaccompanied children crossing the border illegally, is serious.
- They feel this way despite the idiotic claims by Democrat Senator Harry Reid and others that the border is secure.
- 77% of those in the poll said that illegal aliens should be returned to their home countries despite the fact 66% of those polled expressed sympathy for whatever situation led them to journey illegally across the U.S border.
- 57% of Americans do not believe that violence in countries such as El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala are the main factor in them coming, indicating their belief that illegal aliens are coming to America due to a belief that the U.S. government is or will grant amnesty to illegal alien children.
3) A couple interesting set of numbers from a recent Moneynews article. According to the article:
- The U.S. economy has created only about 6 million new jobs during the Bush-Obama years.
- The comparable number during the Reagan-Clinton period was about 40 million new jobs despite both time periods being almost the same length. In other words, it is doubtful that the Obama administration will create 34 million news jobs in the next two years to catch up to he Reagan=Clinton 40 million number.
- Since 2000, GDP growth has averaged 1.7 per year during the Bush-Obama years.
- During the Reagan-Clinton years, GDP averaged 3.4%, double the growth rate of the Bush-Obama era.
3) Let’s finish up this update of by the numbers with some quick hitters from the fabulous website, Bankrupting America, and their latest weekly assessment of the economy and the financial situation of the country:
- The first credible estimate of year to date of national growth is showing an annual growth rate of about 1%, far below the long term average and certainly far below what we should be experiencing in a recovering economy.
- According to Reuters, “U.S. job growth slowed in July and an unexpected rise in the unemployment rate pointed to some slack in the labor market that could give the Federal Reserve room to keep interest rates low for a while. Nonfarm payrolls increased 209,000 last month after surging by 298,000 in June, the Labor Department said on Friday.”
- According to a recent report from the Medicare Trustees, the Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) Program is shrinking quickly: “Payment of full DI benefits beyond 2016, when tax income would cover only 81 percent of scheduled benefits, will require legislation to address the financial imbalance.”
- A primary reason for this bankrupting of the program was pointed out by The Wall Street Journal: “Roughly 11 million Americans collected a total of $140 billion in Social Security disability benefits last year, up from 7.9 million people collecting $78.2 billion in 2004.”
- The Export-Import Bank, which is operated by the Federal government, funded by the American taxpayer, and used to subsidize foreign loans used to purchase American goods, is supposed to benefit the entire economy. But the benefit of the bank is highly skewed to one state and its state workforce, not the total U.S. workforce. An analysis by the Mercatus Center found that: “Washington State is the clear winner in terms of total Ex-Im disbursements, receiving a massive 43.6 percent of all Ex-Im Bank disbursements from 2007 to 2014. Washington is the home of Boeing, one of Ex-Im Bank’s biggest beneficiaries, but the sheer size is nonetheless startling.”
That’s enough numbers for now. Unfortunately, the numbers are not good. Job creation numbers are anemic relative to historical standards and trends, economic growth number are anemic relative to historical standards and trends, another Federal program (Social Security Disability) is going bankrupt, and many in Washington are out of touch with what Americans want relative to illegal immigration.
As we are prone to say, the numbers are in and the numbers are not good. Which means the politicians that are in prove again those politicians are not good. Help us get rid of them by implementing “one and done term limits” at:
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:
www.loathemygovernment.com
It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w
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