RUSH: I am shocked, ladies and gentlemen, I am stunned at President Obama. He’s gonna shut down the jobs council. Did you know that? I guess their work is done and there aren’t any more elections, and the need to create jobs apparently is not all that great, even though I don’t think the president met with them for over a year. But President Obama will let his jobs council expire this week without renewing its charter, winding down one source of input. This is an AP story. I’m sorry. I can’t read the news today without laughing. It’s all a joke. Listen to this.
“President Barack Obama will let his jobs council expire this week without renewing its charter, winding down one source of input from the business community even as unemployment remains stubbornly high.” The GDP contracted, unemployment compensation requests for unemployment checks increased. I have another AP story today — they’re calling the contraction — I kid you not here — they’re calling the contraction in gross domestic product “growth.” They are describing economic growth in terms of the contraction.
So we’re gonna shut down the jobs council, but we’re not gonna close Gitmo. In fact, this is true. I’m not making this up. We’re going to close down the panel that was advising the president on how to close club Gitmo. Club Gitmo will remain open, and the presidential advisory group that was — well, they were to advise him on how to close it, they’re being shut down. Baby steps. (laughing) One of the first executive orders in 2009, Obama was gonna close Club Gitmo, the left cheered. It’s open for business. They’re not gonna shut it down. Jobs council shut down. They met four times in two years.
“When Obama in January 2011 formed his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, unemployment was hovering above 9 percent. Two years later, more than 12 million people in the U.S. are out of work. The unemployment rate has fallen to 7.8 percent, but both parties agree thatÂ’s still too high.” But it’s good enough. So we could close down the jobs council… (laughing) The reason I laugh — I know you know why — the jobs council, I’ll guarantee you, when they met, what kind of input would they give? It’s silly. We all know how to create jobs. Do the exact opposite of what Obama does. There isn’t any pro-growth policy taking place. I sound like a broken record. I think it’s hilarious the jobs council shut down, ’cause we’re now supposed to accept, okay, well, this is the new norm. Mission accomplished.
Bloomberg News. Now that the gross domestic product is contracting, i.e., the economy’s shrinking, Bloomberg’s editors have decided that GDP is an imperfect measure of progress. Just ten hours after a government report showed that the economy went into contraction for the first time in three years during the fourth quarter last year, an item written by the editors at Bloomberg News appeared last night which basically said, you know, you people that focus on GDP are making a mistake. That’s an imperfect measure of economic activity and progress. We need to be looking at indicators — I kid you not — of social progress or human happiness. So in measuring economic output, in measuring economic activity, the GDP, ah, it’s old-fashioned, doesn’t work, never was all that accurate. You shouldn’t rely on that. Don’t pay any attention. It’s an imperfect measure of progress.
Instead, we should refocus and look at the indicators of social progress or human happiness. So it’s the usual case: When things go south, the problem is the way we measure it. When the news is bad, the problem is how the news is determined (laughing), not the actual news. So we’re gonna have to change the mechanism by which we measure the economy because it’s not showing the economy in a good enough light to reflect the magnificence of our esteemed leader, “Barack Hussein Obama! Mmm! Mmm! Mmm!”
Now, two stories on the unemployment front. It is Thursday, and that’s why we have unemployment news. First off, our old buddy Christopher Rugaber at the AP. Headline: “Weekly US Jobless Aid Applications Rise to 368,000 — The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid rose sharply last week but remained at a level consistent with moderate hiring.” See? We gotta change the way we measure this.
The number of Americans out of work and filing for unemployment benefits went up big time, but that still indicates that there’s “moderate hiring” taking place. (interruption) Poor Rachel. She’s in for Dawn today. Rachel’s in there and she’s kind of shaking her head like your dog looks at you, kind of curious, not sure what you’re saying but is excited to try and understand. No, it’s tough. The number of people out of work — the number of people asking for welfare benefits, unemployment compensation checks — skyrocketed.
The AP says: Hey, that’s well within our range here that shows there’s moderate hiring taking place!
It’s the Twilight Zone.
It’s surreal.
Hiring? There’s “moderate hiring,” meaning people are getting jobs? There’s moderate job acquisition going on out there despite skyrocketing unemployment claims? So, once again we see the bizarre worldview of AP’s weekly new unemployment claims reports: A sharp rise in unemployment applications is consistent with moderate hiring. Do you want to hear the numbers? “Weekly applications for unemployment benefits leapt 38,000 to a seasonally adjusted 368,000, the Labor Department said Thursday.
“The increase comes after applications plummeted in the previous two weeks to five-year lows,” and later on in this story, the AP actually calls the negative GDP fourth quarter “the recovery.” They refer to the ongoing recovery and that the fourth quarter plummet? Well, we have to just throw the GDP out as a way to measure. Just to remind you: Under President Bush, one quarter of negative GDP was the start of an official recession.
By the way, in this same AP story, that fourth quarter economic contraction? The GDP is down by one-tenth of 1%, and AP says it’s because the Republicans cut spending. Yep! That happened because the Republican Party had their spending cuts out there, and people fear further spending cuts, and so economic growth dropped. The AP says that you, the American people, are watching the Republicans cut the budget, slash the budget and you’re getting depressed, and you’re quitting your jobs and going on unemployment because the Republicans are cutting spending.
That’s the message of the AP. I kid you not. It’s right here. Now, the Reuters version of this story, headline: “Jobless Claims Go Higher; Income Surges, Spending Up — The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid rose sharply last week but remained at a level consistent with moderate hiring.” Isn’t that amazing? Two different places it’s reported, but it’s all the same thing. Ray Lewis was asked about it at the Super Bowl.
“What do you think about this massive rise in unemployment rate?” Lewis said, it’s the trick of the devil. We need some antler spray for the economy, folks. Clearly this deer antler spray is necessary to stimulate some quick growth. No, Ray Lewis did say that the accusations he’s using performance-enhancing drugs, the deer antler spray, was a trick of the devil. A trick of the devil.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: At the White House today, the White House press briefing, you know, the regime shut down their jobs council today. They met four times in four years. This is the thing that Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of GE, was in charge of. And Obama just punted, just canceled it, because the job’s been done. And so at the press briefing today, the reporters actually were curious about this. One reporter said to Jay Carney, “How can you not paint this as a failure of the jobs council?” This is our sound bite 27, Mike. This is what Carney said.
CARNEY: It was created for two years, like PRAB, and its charter expires. And the work that the jobs council did was very helpful. Some of the somewhat ridiculous criticisms about this, they come from people on Capitol Hill who have consistently opposed every growth initiative and job creation initiative the president’s put forward. Time after time Republicans have opposed those measures.
RUSH: Oh, my God.
CARNEY: It’s a little ironic to hear from those who, with great fervor, embrace the policies that helped create the worst economic crisis —
RUSH: Oh, stop the tape. This is pukeville. So I guess the reason that there are no new jobs out there is ’cause the Republicans, Republicans have opposed every growth initiative, every job creation initiative the president’s put forward. That is an out-and-out lie. The mathematics is such that the economy cannot grow. Obama’s taken too much money out of it. Taxes, spending, regulations, it can’t grow, and it isn’t. It’s contracting. And he hasn’t put forth any jobs bills. They mighta called them that, but there weren’t any. Anyway, it’s the Republicans’ fault. See that? The Republicans have stopped. The Republicans spent all that money back in December that led to the collapse of the economy, and now this, Republicans opposing every jobs bill. Then a reporter said, “But, Jay, isn’t it also a little ironic to say in the context of the economy having contracted that the jobs council was a success?”
CARNEY: We have had sustained economic growth now for three years. We have had 54 months, I believe it is, of job creation, two million jobs in the last year alone. We have a lot of work to do, but if the comparison — and, you know, I encourage it, you know, those who are inclined to go back and look at the history —
RUSH: All right, stop the tape. He just got through saying the Republicans stopped every jobs bill, that they made sure that there wasn’t any economic growth. Every growth initiative, every jobs initiative the Republicans shot down. And yet we’ve been growing for three years, two million jobs in the last year alone. This guy… No, I’m stopping, because I’m on the verge of profanity here. This is just insulting everybody’s intelligence, this so-called press secretary. These people are nothing more than lying propaganda. Ah, I take it back, sorry. That’s scary and frightening and it’s not part of the low-profile objective.