Bonnie Erbe

Unemployment Drop is Good News for Obama, Democrats

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December 4, 2009 RSS Feed Print
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By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

Today's jobless numbers—the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell to 10 percent—are not only good news for the Americans who didn't lose jobs last month, but also for the President and Democrats in Congress.

The much lower than expected job numbers come a few days after the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office released a report showing that, as the Examiner reported:

The economic stimulus package created or saved between 600,000 and 1.6 million jobs, the Congressional Budget Office announced Monday. The CBO also said the stimulus package, formally known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, has lowered the nation's unemployment rate between 0.3% and 0.9% and raised gross domestic product by about 1.2 to 3.2 percent higher than they would have been without the stimulus.

Clearly, there are many economic reports to come between now and next November when Republicans hope to make major Congressional gains in the mid-term elections. But armed with CBO data now showing their plan worked and worked well, Congressional Democrats must be feeling much, much better about their chances for reelection.

Tags:
unemployment,
Barack Obama

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buy databases of 8:12AM January 14, 2010

is attempting to make mountains out of mole hills. Obama will find, when he attempts re-election, that wrinkles in numbers do not equate to success in an administration.

It's like a stage IV cancer patient with metasticis trying to be encouraged to see that their white blood cell count drops from 150,000 to 149,800. Sure, 149,800 is a glimmer of encouragement, but a long way from the normal range of 8,000 and 10,000.

When we recognize we have a problem, we can address the problem. "We the People" now recognize that the problem is the administration and the Democrat party. There is no vision or plan of action on the part of the president, there are no substantive discussions. Sure, we can sit around a table at some summit and yak about theory and spin opinion like professors sitting in the teacher lounge, but this is not an academic question. The American people don't want a thesis on the who, what, where, when, and why. They don't want an analysis treatis. They want jobs.

david of ID 12:50PM December 07, 2009

See if you can keep up. It's not that complicated, really.

The numbers didn't come out of thin air; Schaefer is referring to the 18% unemployment IF you count those who have given up and quit looking for work (not included in government numbers), and those who are under-employed.

It's a far more accurate number than the paltry 10% unemployment you hear on the nightly news. Surprise! The government "cooks the books" so things don't look quite as bad.

Your idea about the outsourced jobs being call centers is correct. Or was, about 10 years ago. Again, try to keep up. Things change.

It's NOT just dumpy call center jobs anymore. It's jobs for which people go to college. A degree does not make your job safe. It's programmers. Doctors (yes, people now travel from the US to India to obtain great specialized medical care), and others. Soon, perhaps, yours.

I hope this helps to clarify things for you.

Rich of CO 12:49PM December 07, 2009

Bonnie Erbe

Bonnie Erbe

Bonnie Erbe is a contributing editor at U.S. News & World Report and hosts PBS's weekly news analysis program, To the Contrary with Bonnie Erbe. She also writes a weekly syndicated newspaper column for Scripps Howard News Service.

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