President Bush tells us the economy has created almost 1.5 million jobs since August 2003. That means we are only about 1 million below the number when he took office. What the president does not tell the American people is that over the past 3 3/4 years since he took office, about 5 million new workers have tried to enter the job market. For us to remain just even, the economy must create about 120,000 new jobs each month to keep up with our population growth. The economic policies of George W. have not produced the 6 million jobs we needed to stay even.
Mr. Bush is telling us the unemployemnt rate is down to 5.4% which is about where it was in the 1990's. What President Bush is not telling the American People is that during the economic downturn of the past four years, workers have been unemployed so long, that many are no longer counted as unemployed even though they are not working. When you include the long term unemployed, the REAL unemployemt rate is above 7%.
President Bush also does not address the quality of the 1.5 million jobs he claims were created since August 2003. The truth is many of these jobs do not pay a living wage and have few if any benefits. Thus, the real impact on the jobs picture that is faced by American Workers and the picture painted by George W. are as different as night and day! The impact on workers in America has never been worse since Herbert Hoover at the time of Great Depression. Every day Lou Dobbs provides an update on the lost jobs to other countries. He has a list of over 1,000 companies that are exporting American jobs. President Bush has done nothing to stem this loss and his Secretary of Commerce has said it is " good for America to export American jobs". George Bush can pass tax cuts to the wealthy that is being paid foy by adding to the national debt but he can not work with congress to level the playing field for American workers. Add to all this that about 5 million workers, that still have jobs, have lost their health benefits since George W. became President and the JOBS PICTURE IS COMPLTET. Great work, Mr. President!