One of the most galling examples of Republican double-speak this year is their assertion on one hand that the government cannot create jobs — which is demonstrably false; states and cities hire private contractors to build and repair roads all the time, just as one example — and then on the other hand their habit of blaming Pres. Obama for the high unemployment and excoriating the government for not creating more jobs. Which is it?
-Wall St. Journal
The GOP will keep making these mutually exclusive arguments until a) the corporate media catches on (so don’t hold your breath) or b) they take control of Congress in three weeks, at which point their corporate masters had better start hiring or Speaker Wanna-Be Boehner will find himself with an approval rating even lower than his current rating of 22 percent — a full 11 points lower than Speaker Pelosi’s.
Despite the high unemployment rate caused by the Bush Recession — and Republicans’ refusal to invest in state and local budgets to prevent teachers, police officers and other public sector employees from being laid off — Pres. Obama is doing a better job at job creation than Republicans and the corporate media will acknowledge, especially when compared with his predecessor, George Bush.
As of the end of September, Obama had created 863,000 private sector jobs this year:
Private-sector payroll employment increased in September for the ninth straight month (every month this year). The increase of 64,000 jobs last month brings the total number of private-sector jobs added this year to 863,000, which is the largest 9-month gain in private payroll employment since the summer of 2007 (see top chart above).
Obama’s record so far is more than double the 375,000 jobs created by Bush on average each year during his eight years in office. Here’s how the ultra-right wing Wall St. Journal described Bush’s record in job-creation:
The Bush administration created about three million jobs (net) over its eight years, a fraction of the 23 million jobs created under President Bill Clinton’s administration and only slightly better than President George H.W. Bush did in his four years in office…
The current President Bush, once taking account how long he’s been in office, shows the worst track record for job creation since the government began keeping records.
Presidential Job Creation Chart
President | Jobs created | Jobs at end of term | Jobs at start of term | Payroll expansion | Jobs created per year in office | Population growth | Percent change in population |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
George W. Bush | 3.0 million | 135.5 million | 132.5 million | 2.3% | 375,000 | 22.0 million | 7.7% |
Bill Clinton | 23.1 million | 132.5 million | 109.4 million | 21.1% | 2,900,000 | 25.2 million | 8.9% |
George H.W. Bush | 2.5 million | 109.4 million | 106.9 million | 2.3% | 625,000 | 12.5 million | 4.8% |
Ronald Reagan | 16.0 million | 106.9 million | 90.9 million | 17.6% | 2,000,000 | 17.3 million | 7% |
Jimmy Carter | 10.5 million | 90.9 million | 80.4 million | 13.1% | 2,600,000 | 9.8 million | 4.3% |
Gerald Ford | 1.8 million | 80.4 million | 78.6 million | 2.3% | 745,000 | 5.1 million | 2.3% |
Richard Nixon | 9.4 million | 78.6 million | 69.2 million | 13.6% | 1,700,000 | 12.3 million | 5.7% |
Lyndon Johnson | 11.9 million | 69.2 million | 57.3 million | 20.8% | 2,300,000 | 11.3 million | 5.6% |
John F. Kennedy | 3.6 million | 57.3 million | 53.7 million | 6.7% | 1,200,000 | 8.2 million | 4.3% |
Dwight Eisenhower | 3.5 million | 53.7 million | 50.2 million | 7% | 438,000 | 23.3 million | 12.8% |
Harry Truman | 8.4 million | 50.2 million | 41.8 million | 20.1% | 1,100,000 | N/A | N/A |
Until there is a chicken in every pot and a paycheck for every willing worker the O man will be blamed for the CURRENT state of the economy. Is that fair? No! Just reality.
I keep telling myself that Americans are too smart to swallow all the Repug baloney. I whispered that to myself in 1980 Reagan. I told myself that in 1988 Bush I. I really shouted that in 2000 Bush II and I screamed that in 2004 Bush II redux. Now in 2010 I am too hoarse to utter anything but YUCK!
This is a terrific post. It really blows my mind that no leftie pundit has used this info when going after the RW lies.
I sent the link to Rachel, she’s one of the few that is telling the truth. Lets hope she uses it.
This article was written 7 years ago but now in 2017 we know that under Obama, 95% of the jobs that were created were either part-time or contract. Also, around 9 million jobs were lost during the Great Recession, many of which would have come back on their own once the economy recovered. So in reality when someone says Obama created 12 million jobs in 8 years, there was really only a net gain of 3 million.