This LIE proves that Bush is exploiting 9-11!!!

[phillybri]

From Scott McClellan's press briefing 9-15-04:

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, let me address a couple of things. We've overcome many challenges in this country over the last three years. A number of them go back to what occurred on September 11th. When it comes to the economy, let's look at the strains that were placed on our economy. We were in an economic downturn and the President inherited a recession when he came into office. Then you had the September 11th attacks. In the aftermath of September 11th, in the three months after September 11th, we lost a million jobs right there.

<end>

This is a LIE! And who says so? BUSH'S DEPARTMENT OF LABOR!!!

http://www.bls.gov/mls/mlsimpac.htm

In the 18 weeks following the September 11 attacks (the weeks ending September 15 through January 12), employers reported 430 events involving 125,637 workers separated as a direct or indirect effect of the attacks. A majority of the layoff events took place in the weeks immediately following the attacks, and the number of new events has tapered off since then. Thirty-three states reported extended mass layoff activity related to the September 11 incidents.

[speedoo]

1. No no no. He just mis-spoke.

That is exactly what he will say if someone calls him on it.

[MsUnderstood]

2. Now you know our administration doesn't lie

Now you know our administration doesn't lie. . .Come sit down with me and we can talk about it. . . .here drink some tea. . .are you feeling sleepy? Good--why don't you just take a little nap, like for 2 months, and this will be over soon.

[GOPFighter]

3. Actually, TWO lies in one fricken' sentence!

Bush did not inherit a recession. The recession started March, 2001.

http://money.cnn.com/2001/11/26/economy/recession/

"NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The world's largest economy sank into a recession in March <2001>, ending 10 years of growth that was the longest expansion on record in the United States, a group of economists that dates U.S. business cycles said Monday."

[phillybri]

4. Exactly...

The second lie is a little more egregious in my mind simply because it shows their willingness to use 9-11 as an excuse for anything that they fucked up...:grr:

[kburriss]

5. Recession

In March 2001 Bush had been in office less than 2 months. His first budget did not become effective until October 2001. It's not Clinton's recession either. It was just the natural business cycle that was portended by the significant increase in inventory levels in the fourth quarter of 2000.

[kburriss]

6. The lie

I don't know what the real number is but it is higher than the 125k as it only includes events with 50 layoffs or more. Therefore, all layoffs of smaller numbers are not counted.

From the BLS website:

Definitions

Initial claimant. A person who files any notice of unemployment to
initiate a request either for a determination of entitlement to and
eligibility for compensation, or for a subsequent period of unemployment within a benefit year or period of eligibility.

Mass layoff event. Fifty or more initial claims for unemployment
insurance benefits filed against an establishment during a 5-week period, regardless of duration.

ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/news.release/History/mmls.10262001.news

[phillybri]

7. What are you telling me?

:shrug:

[kburriss]

8. Clarification

I am telling you that that number is low because it excldes all people laid off by companies where less than 50 people are laid off. But I know it is not one million as the number of employed only dropped 800k from Sept to Dec on 2001 and there is no way all of those are related to 9/11. Below is a link to look at the numbers employed and unemployed by month all the way back to 1994.

http://data.bls.gov/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet

[phillybri]

10. Link is busted...

This is all I got:

Sorry, survey does not exist. If you need to contact someone about the program or its data, please send a message to the data questions e-mail address below or call the phone number below.

[kburriss]

12. Busted link

Maybe it will not allow you to go directly to a query result. I don't know. If you would like I can tell you how to run the query from BLS, but I don't know if you wish to go to that much effort.

[nyhuskyfan]

11. Krugman brought this up in his book...

In 1995, Japan had a massive earhquake in Kobe in which more than 5,000 would perish, 25,000 would be injured, and over 300,000 would be left homeless.

The economy bounced back almost immediately, and the suffered no significant job losses that year.

[nyhuskyfan]

9. In addition...

When the Bush administration passed its tax cuts in 2002 -- after 9/11 -- they projected that thier cuts would stimulate an increase of 7 million jobs by 2004. After going backwards for a little while, they are just about even -- which is 7 million jobs short of what they projected.

They also projected a budget deficit of a mere15 billion for 2004 at the time. They were off by over 400 billion.

I'm sorry, but 9/11 had already happened at that point -- these were your own projections in the aftermath.