Time for another episode of truth and numbers
The Obama Administration is very proud that in June of this year the unemployment rate fell to 5.3%, the lowest since May of 2008. Wonderful! Stupendous! Outstanding work by President Obama and his team. Or is it?
Take a look at this graph, which has a downward curve that looks a lot like that of the unemployment rate since May of 2008:
The problem is, this is a graph of the labor participation rate, as provided by the same United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics that tracks the unemployment rate. The labor participation rate is defined as all of the people within the typical employment-age pool who are either working or actively seeking work. Since May of 2008, when this measure stood at 66.1%, it has fallen sharply, down to a June rate of 62.6%. That's scary.
To put this in simpler terms, imagine a group of 100 typical working Americans between the ages of 16 and 64. From May of 2008 to last month, the number of people working in that group was reduced by 3.5. Or in even simpler terms, there are more than 3 fewer American working or looking for work out of every 100 in the labor pool than were working just over 7 years ago. It's the lowest level since 1977. Not 2008. It's been 30 years since this measure was this low.
This isn't good. This sucks. So why don't we hear about this? Because we've been trained to look only at the unemployment rate, an artificial measure of economic success. As long as the stock market is going up and the unemployment rate is going down, we're supposed to think everything is just fine and dandy. It isn't. The media is trying to claim that the aging of the population is partly to blame for this reduction in the labor participation rate but that's nonsense. Since the rate is only calculated based on the percentage of the population that is between 16 and 64, the people passing 64 drop out of the statistical measurement.
* * *
Meanwhile, Congress has been busy. Our labor participation rate is shrinking. Corporations are leaving the U. S. to avoid corporate taxes. Jobs are being exported to other nations to enrich shareholders at the expense of American workers. We're supposed to celebrate that the amount the federal government is projected to spend this fiscal year is less than $500 billion, the lowest amount in some time. We have a staggering national debt and we're adding nearly half a trillion to this amount. According to the Census Bureau, the current U. S. population is 321.3 million. Putting this in simple terms, if we divvy up the total U. S. public debt among those 321.3 million, we are each going $1,512 further into the hole in this fiscal year.
Where's is all that money going? Stuff like:
$3 million to the Delta Regional Authority. It is supposed to provide economic development assistance in the Mississippi Delta, but what it does is almost entirely duplicated by other federal programs. $17.8 million has been flushed down this particular commode since FY 2003.
The Pacific Salmon Coastal Recovery Fund has received $149.5 million since FY 2000. Washington's Senator Patty Murray is trying to eclipse the late Senator Robert Byrd as the king of pork barrel spending. In just FY 2008 through FY 2010 alone, she requested earmarked spending of nearly $800 million.
$120 million to upgrade the Army's M-1 Abrams tank fleet. Over three years ago the Army's Chief of Staff testified before Congress that there are already more than enough tanks on hand to meet our needs. In fact, 2,000 such tanks are parked in the Mojave Desert, not being used.
$21.8 million for the Appalachian Regional Commission, a boondoggle if ever there was one.
$2.6 million for the Denali Commission. President Obama tried to stop funding this pork project back in 2012. The commission's own Inspector General testified before Congress in 2013 that, "I have concluded that [my agency] is a congressional experiment that hasn’t worked out in practice. … I recommend that Congress put its money elsewhere." He works for this group and he wants is defunded.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention that a recent report shows that there are roughly 6.5 million active Social Security numbers belonging to people who are 112 or older. The U. S. isn't alone here, a report back in 2010 showed that there were more than 230,000 Japanese people 100 and older who could not be located.
So with all of this waste going on and all of these problems facing the United States, what are our elected representatives in Congress doing at the moment?
California's senior senator Dianne Feinstein found time to introduce eight different bills that will allow 18 different illegal immigrants to attain permanent residency status.
Senator Chuck Schumer introduced a bill, the Fluke Fairness Act, which is designed to ensure proper management of the summer flounder stock in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.
Senator Feinstein joined with Senators Whitehouse and Kirk to introduce the Pets on Trains Act of 2015. This will force Amtrak to allow domesticated dogs and cats that are not service-animals to be transported on trains under certain condition. Clearly something of vital importance. Mark this one super-urgent!
Four different senators joined together to introduce the Smartphone Theft Prevention Act of 2015. Goodness knows that passing a federal law to stop theft of something will definitely solve the problem.
A number of members of the House came together to introduce the Equal Dignity for Married Taxpayers Act, so that the Internal Revenue Code will be modified to change any references to "himself" to just "self" and to replace "husband and wife" with any married couple. Since the Supreme Court made its decision in DOMA, all this stuff is in place anyway, but we can't let the IRC be perfect.
Then there's the POW Accountability Act, which requires the VA to conduct a thorough review of the current list of former POWs to identify and correct any discrepancies. Goodness knows that when a veteran shows up at the VA, his or her status as a former POW is critical in ensuring they get proper priority in receiving treatment. It isn't like the VA is going to stash their paperwork in a drawer somewhere and let them die at home without ever being treated. That could never happen.
And finally, the CECIL Act. Yes, the late Cecil the Lion has had a new proposed law named after him. According to the Huffington Post, The Conserving Ecosystems by Ceasing the Importation of Large (CECIL) Animal Trophies Act would extend current U.S. import and export restrictions on animal trophies to include species that have been proposed for listing as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Current law provides protection only for species whose status on the list has been finalized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and it can take over a year for the agency to complete an assessment. Never mind that any attempt to import Cecil's head or skin into the U.S. would have been a violation of the Lacey Act. It isn't enough to have one law against it, we need two or three, or maybe more.
Seriously?
Take a look at this graph, which has a downward curve that looks a lot like that of the unemployment rate since May of 2008:
To put this in simpler terms, imagine a group of 100 typical working Americans between the ages of 16 and 64. From May of 2008 to last month, the number of people working in that group was reduced by 3.5. Or in even simpler terms, there are more than 3 fewer American working or looking for work out of every 100 in the labor pool than were working just over 7 years ago. It's the lowest level since 1977. Not 2008. It's been 30 years since this measure was this low.
This isn't good. This sucks. So why don't we hear about this? Because we've been trained to look only at the unemployment rate, an artificial measure of economic success. As long as the stock market is going up and the unemployment rate is going down, we're supposed to think everything is just fine and dandy. It isn't. The media is trying to claim that the aging of the population is partly to blame for this reduction in the labor participation rate but that's nonsense. Since the rate is only calculated based on the percentage of the population that is between 16 and 64, the people passing 64 drop out of the statistical measurement.
* * *
Meanwhile, Congress has been busy. Our labor participation rate is shrinking. Corporations are leaving the U. S. to avoid corporate taxes. Jobs are being exported to other nations to enrich shareholders at the expense of American workers. We're supposed to celebrate that the amount the federal government is projected to spend this fiscal year is less than $500 billion, the lowest amount in some time. We have a staggering national debt and we're adding nearly half a trillion to this amount. According to the Census Bureau, the current U. S. population is 321.3 million. Putting this in simple terms, if we divvy up the total U. S. public debt among those 321.3 million, we are each going $1,512 further into the hole in this fiscal year.
Where's is all that money going? Stuff like:
$3 million to the Delta Regional Authority. It is supposed to provide economic development assistance in the Mississippi Delta, but what it does is almost entirely duplicated by other federal programs. $17.8 million has been flushed down this particular commode since FY 2003.
The Pacific Salmon Coastal Recovery Fund has received $149.5 million since FY 2000. Washington's Senator Patty Murray is trying to eclipse the late Senator Robert Byrd as the king of pork barrel spending. In just FY 2008 through FY 2010 alone, she requested earmarked spending of nearly $800 million.
$120 million to upgrade the Army's M-1 Abrams tank fleet. Over three years ago the Army's Chief of Staff testified before Congress that there are already more than enough tanks on hand to meet our needs. In fact, 2,000 such tanks are parked in the Mojave Desert, not being used.
$21.8 million for the Appalachian Regional Commission, a boondoggle if ever there was one.
$2.6 million for the Denali Commission. President Obama tried to stop funding this pork project back in 2012. The commission's own Inspector General testified before Congress in 2013 that, "I have concluded that [my agency] is a congressional experiment that hasn’t worked out in practice. … I recommend that Congress put its money elsewhere." He works for this group and he wants is defunded.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention that a recent report shows that there are roughly 6.5 million active Social Security numbers belonging to people who are 112 or older. The U. S. isn't alone here, a report back in 2010 showed that there were more than 230,000 Japanese people 100 and older who could not be located.
So with all of this waste going on and all of these problems facing the United States, what are our elected representatives in Congress doing at the moment?
California's senior senator Dianne Feinstein found time to introduce eight different bills that will allow 18 different illegal immigrants to attain permanent residency status.
Senator Chuck Schumer introduced a bill, the Fluke Fairness Act, which is designed to ensure proper management of the summer flounder stock in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.
Senator Feinstein joined with Senators Whitehouse and Kirk to introduce the Pets on Trains Act of 2015. This will force Amtrak to allow domesticated dogs and cats that are not service-animals to be transported on trains under certain condition. Clearly something of vital importance. Mark this one super-urgent!
Four different senators joined together to introduce the Smartphone Theft Prevention Act of 2015. Goodness knows that passing a federal law to stop theft of something will definitely solve the problem.
A number of members of the House came together to introduce the Equal Dignity for Married Taxpayers Act, so that the Internal Revenue Code will be modified to change any references to "himself" to just "self" and to replace "husband and wife" with any married couple. Since the Supreme Court made its decision in DOMA, all this stuff is in place anyway, but we can't let the IRC be perfect.
Then there's the POW Accountability Act, which requires the VA to conduct a thorough review of the current list of former POWs to identify and correct any discrepancies. Goodness knows that when a veteran shows up at the VA, his or her status as a former POW is critical in ensuring they get proper priority in receiving treatment. It isn't like the VA is going to stash their paperwork in a drawer somewhere and let them die at home without ever being treated. That could never happen.
And finally, the CECIL Act. Yes, the late Cecil the Lion has had a new proposed law named after him. According to the Huffington Post, The Conserving Ecosystems by Ceasing the Importation of Large (CECIL) Animal Trophies Act would extend current U.S. import and export restrictions on animal trophies to include species that have been proposed for listing as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Current law provides protection only for species whose status on the list has been finalized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and it can take over a year for the agency to complete an assessment. Never mind that any attempt to import Cecil's head or skin into the U.S. would have been a violation of the Lacey Act. It isn't enough to have one law against it, we need two or three, or maybe more.
Seriously?
posted by me at 9:34 PM
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