"The number of Americans filing first- time claims for unemployment benefits surged more than forecast last week to a 26-year high, a sign companies are stepping up firings as the recession deepens." As you can see from the graph jobless claims under Bush have skyrocketed since 2007. Never fear though, this is all good news. Our economy is strong and it won't be officially in the worst shape in 80 years until Jan. 21, mark my word.*Update:
Meanwhile in the Republican Fantasy World, here's how they view our current economic condition:
HANNITY: We had a good six and a half years with the economy. Let's be honest. He inherited a recession, meaning President Bush.
ALAN COLMES (co-host): No, he didn't.
HANNITY: He -- he inherited a recession.
COLMES: He didn't.
HANNITY: He had the negative impact on the economy on 9-11. We created 10 million new jobs, lower unemployment than in the last four decades' average. We had a lot of good years. There is an ebb and flow to the economy.
Fantasy World Caretaker Sean Hannity's talking points are so insanely false it's hard to comprehend that this guy makes millions of dollars a year to make stuff up.
Bush never came close to creating 10 million new jobs. According to the federal government only 2.8 million jobs were created between 2001 and 2006. That's a far cry from 10 million. But Republicans don't care about facts. Since it was said on Fox News it's gotta be the truth. To them, George Bush created 10 million new jobs and had lower unemployment than anytime in 4 decades. Even Hannity's unemployment claim is entirely inaccurate. As you can see from the graph above, unemployment has soared under Bush and never went lower than the rate at which he inherited from Clinton. "Lower unemployment than in the last four decades' average," is a flat out lie, totally made up but presented as fact on Fox News.
My favorite part though is Hannity's insistence that the greatest president ever, George Bush, inherited an economy in recession but that right now it's only an ebb and flow. Here's GDP for the year 2000 by quarter:
Q1- 1.0
Q2- 6.4
Q3- (-.05)
Q4- 2.1
Here's GDP for 2008
Q1- 0.9
Q2- 2.8
Q3- (-0.5)
I'd take the situation in 2000 any day. I don't think it's possible for the sun to shine any brighter in the Republican Fantasy World. But mark my word, Jan. 21st their attitudes will entirely change about the condition of this country.
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