What if the Numbers Were Accurate?

The Foundation

"There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily." --George Washington

For the Record

"The more you drill down into the November jobs report, the worse it looks. ... 1. The two-tenths drop in the unemployment rate was because people gave up looking for work. The labor force participation rate fell to 63.6% from 63.8% in October. If it had just held steady since then, the unemployment rate would be back over 8%. Indeed, if the LFP rate was just where it was in November 2011, the unemployment rate would be 8.3%. Some 542,000 Americans left the labor force just last month. 2. If labor force participation was at its January 2009 level, the unemployment rate would be a whopping 10.7%. ... 3. In November, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 4 cents to $23.63. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have risen by 1.7%. Unfortunately, inflation -- as measured by the consumer price index -- has risen by 2.2% over the past year, meaning average hourly earnings have fallen by 0.5% in real terms. 4. The number of long-term unemployed remains at sky-high 40.1%, the same as in August. 5. Since the beginning of this year, employment growth has averaged 151,000 per month, about the same as the average monthly job gain of 153,000 in 2011. At that pace, the U.S. would not return to pre-Great Recession employment levels until after 2025.... Bottom line: The November jobs report showed job creation far too slow to get the labor market back to pre-recession levels or boost wages. Faster, please." --American Enterprise Institute's James Pethokoukis

Government

"Seventy-three percent of the new civilian jobs created in the United States over the last five months are in government, according to official data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In June, a total of 142,415,000 people were employed in the U.S, according to the BLS, including 19,938,000 who were employed by federal, state and local governments. By November, according to data BLS released today, the total number of people employed had climbed to 143,262,000, an overall increase of 847,000 in the six months since June. In the same five-month period since June, the number of people employed by government increased by 621,000 to 20,559,000. These 621,000 new government jobs created in the last five months equal 73.3 percent of the 847,000 new jobs created overall." --CNSNews editor-in-chief Terence Jeffrey

Opinion in Brief

"Participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, reached another high in September, according to new data released by the United Stated Department of Agriculture. The most recent data on SNAP participation were released Friday, and showed that 47,710,324 people were enrolled in the program in September, an increase of 607,559 from the 47,102,765 enrolled in August. The number of households enrolled in the program also increased from 22,684,463 in August to 22,973,698 in September, an increase of 289,235. The average benefit, according to the new data, was $134.29 per person and $278.89 per household. ... The new numbers mean that an estimated one in 6.5 people in America were on food stamps in September. In the 1970s, one out of every 50 Americans was on food stamps. Since 2001, spending on the program has quadrupled and doubled in the last four years." --The Daily Caller's Caroline May

Insight

"Do not blame Caesar, blame the people of Rome who have so enthusiastically acclaimed and adored him and rejoiced in their loss of freedom and danced in his path and given him triumphal processions. Blame the people who hail him when he speaks in the Forum of the new wonderful good society which shall now be Rome's, interpreted to mean more money, more ease, more security, and more living fatly at the expense of the industrious." --Roman philosopher and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC)

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Reader Comments

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Re: The Left

"Barack Obama and the Democrats are coming for you, middle class. Make no mistake about it. They're telling you a lot of convenient fairy tales now, for political gain. Maybe Obama will even try to stage a heroic 'rescue' via 'middle class tax cut' after we go over the 'fiscal cliff,' at which point Howard Dean will be a good little soldier and put his liberal honesty in neutral for a while, at least until after the 2014 elections. ... When the Democrats come for you, coddled taxpayers of the 'middle class,' it will be with tears in their eyes. Sorrowfully they will inform you that the titanic pressure from years of their irresponsible deficit spending leaves them with no choice to but to 'ask' you to 'pay a little more.' They'll try re-defining the middle class first, the same way they made a concerted effort to re-define 'millionaires' as people making $250,000 per year. ... And did you notice how smoothly the hated top One Percent became the Two Percent, in just a matter of weeks? Soon the lower boundary of sinister, unfair wealth will drop, and people who make $100k to $200k will suddenly find themselves classified as 'millionaires.' Then the Left will start pointing out that people who make $80k to $100k really don't have much in common with the Sainted Middle Class, and they will also be excommunicated." --columnist John Hayward

Essential Liberty

"Debasing the value of money by creating more of it is nothing new or esoteric. Irresponsible governments have done this, not just for centuries, but for thousands of years. It is a way to take people's wealth from them without having to openly raise taxes. Inflation is the most universal tax of all. All the pretty talk about how tax rates will be raised only on 'the rich' hides the ugly fact that the poorest people in the country will see the value of their money decline, just like everybody else, and at the same rate as everybody else, when the government creates more money and spends it. If you have $100 and, after inflation follows from 'quantitative easing,' that $100 dollars will only buy what $80 bought before, then that is the same economically as if the government had taxed away one-fifth of your money and spent it. But it is not the same politically, so long as gullible people don't look beyond words to the reality that inflation taxes everybody, the poorest as well as the richest." --economist Thomas Sowell

Political Futures

"If the American people desire to emulate the social-democratic polices of Europe, then they must either pay for it or follow these same nations over the fiscal cliff into financial and societal chaos. It is a stark choice, but the reality of the situation in which the nation finds itself. The other option is to educate the public why cutting spending, enacting policies to grow the economy, and being honest with the people will save the country. This requires a political party willing to not only put these steps in motion but to purge the education and political establishments of the socialist mindset that dominates those sectors of society. ... One of the most perceptive visitors ever to set foot in this nation, Alexis de Tocqueville, wrote in the 1830's: 'There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle.' Now more than ever this nation requires such a party for until there is the United States will flounder and its citizens will continue to be lied to and deceived." --columnist Steve McCann

Faith and Family

"Children need and children have a right to the married love of a mother and father. Every reputable social science study shows that children do best when they have a loving, married mother and father in the home. ... If we care about children and the future of this nation, we cannot casually dismiss the institution of marriage. ... Married parents want to care for their own children. They usually do not want the Nanny State. Single parents and cohabiting parents are often forced to rely on government assistance. If you want Socialism, abolish marriage. If you want 'Julia' to be the future of America, vote against the civil institution of marriage. Julia, of course, was the Obama campaign team's fictional single woman target voter. Julia goes from Head Start to college, parenthood, to retirement in a seamless web of dependency on government. She decides to have a child at age 29. No man in her life is even hinted at -- no husband, no father, no brother, not even a male friend or business partner. Except one. The One: Mr. Federal Government. It's hard to understand why anyone would want to end traditional marriage. It's the HOV lane to the Welfare State." --columnist Ken Blackwell

The Gipper

"More than any gift or toy, ornament or tree, let us resolve that this Christmas shall be, like that first Christmas, a celebration of interior treasures. And let us resolve to share our many blessings with others now and in the year to come -- from the hungry or the helpless near at hand to those in trouble or turmoil in distant lands from Africa to Asia and beyond. Today, as we gather with our family and friends to honor Christ, we can experience the same peace and joy as the shepherds and the Magi did almost two thousand years ago. If we make that peace and joy a part of our lives, our example will serve as a guide and an inspiration for everyone we meet." --Ronald Reagan

The Last Word

"[I]n a republic governed by 'we, the people,' when the President of the United States wishes to watch a film, there are two full-time movie projectionists who live at the White House and are on call round the clock, in case he's overcome by a sudden urge to watch Esther Williams in 'Dangerous When Wet' (1953) at two in the morning. ... In his recent book 'Presidential Perks Gone Royal,' Robert Keith Gray, a former Eisenhower staffer, revealed that last year the U.S. presidency cost American taxpayers $1.4 billion. Over the same period, the entire Royal Family cost British taxpayers about $57 million. There's nothing 'royal' about the current level of 'presidential perks': the Obama family costs taxpayers more than every European royal house put together. In the American republic, even the dogs cost more. ... In contrast to the stingy remuneration offered by the Royal Household, the presidential dog-walker is one of 226 White House staff earning over $100,000 a year. For many centuries, the King had a courtier whose somewhat intimate duties were reflected in his title: the Groom of the Stool, a position abolished in 1559. Now, after two and a third centuries, the American Presidency has evolved to the point that it has a full-time six-figure Groom of the Canine Stool. Will he be accompanying the President on Air Force One to liaise with the Keeper of the Privy Flatscreen over screenings of 'Lassie'?" --columnist Mark Steyn

Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!
Nate Jackson for The Patriot Post Editorial Team