RUSH: Did you know that the unemployment rate went up last month? They just announced that today. It went up from 7.8% to 7.9%. But the Drive-Bys are not reporting that. The Drive-Bys are all reporting the number of jobs created. That number, 157,000. They’re saying that the unemployment rate going up, that’s a statistical anomaly. It’s not really relevant. What’s happening out there is that despite the best efforts of the Republicans in December to crash this economy, despite the best efforts of the Republicans to kill this country with all their spending cuts in December, the president persevered and created 157,000 jobs.

That would be in January after Republicans tried to kill the economy in December. The president came through 157,000 jobs. Unemployment rate did go up, but you’re not supposed to pay any attention to that. You’re also not supposed to pay any attention to this. While 157,000 jobs are being created, 169,000 people left the workforce. Yeah, that got your attention, didn’t it? Gazing off watching CNN or something, and you heard me say that, and you said, “Whoa.” That’s right, 157,000 jobs created; 169,000 people left the workforce, meaning they stopped looking for work. In a recovery. They gave up looking for work. That means they are not counted in the unemployment numbers.

I know it’s strange, and on the surface it doesn’t make any sense. They’re out of work. But since they’re not looking for jobs, it is assumed that they don’t need jobs, and they may not. They’ve got their cell phones. They’ve got their flat screen. They’ve got the food stamp card, who knows whatever else. They’ve stopped looking for work. So they’re not counted. Labor force participation rate — you want a shocking number? This is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is the regime’s own number. Since Barack Obama took office in January of 2009, 8.5 million Americans have left the labor force, including that 169,000 in January. One-hundred-sixty-nine thousand people left the labor force in January, just gave up looking for work. In total, in four years, 8.5 million Americans have left the labor force.

Another way of looking at this is, five years ago, six years ago, the economy had jobs for 8.5 million people who today do not have them. Eight-and-a-half million Americans have left the labor force. You could say that the number of jobs available has also decreased by a number that approximates that. It wouldn’t be exact. I mean, it never would be, but it’s close. This is precisely what I mean and what I have meant and what I will mean in the future when I say that this administration is shrinking the private sector. This administration is shrinking the American economy. This administration is making it smaller, and they’re doing that by taking money out of it, via tax increases, regulations, debt payments, interest.

They’re taking up all the money. The Feds are spending more and more and more of the universe of money that exists in the country. The private sector is getting smaller. And the greatest illustration of that is, in four years, 8.5 million Americans have left the labor force, 8.5 million fewer jobs available since Barack Obama became president. And, at some point, people are going to, when presented with this information — and a majority will not be presented the information as I’ve just shared with you. It’s available, but you’re not gonna see this on CNN. You can watch all day, Rachel, all you’re gonna see is something about Syria and Bashar Assad’s designer wife. That’s all you’re gonna see.

You might see the latest on Lady Gaga suing her former personal assistant. Boy, what a brutal story that is. I was reading about that. It’s not easy being a celebrity. You might be turning into MSNBC and watching what a reprobate I am, but you will not hear, in the mainstream media, that 8.5 million Americans have left the labor force because their theme, their narrative is the economy’s growing. We’re in a recovery, jobs are being created. That’s what they’re telling you today. It’s journalistic malpractice. This is the labor force participation rate.

Try this. If the labor force participation rate were today what it was when Obama was inaugurated, in other words, if the number of jobs available today were the same as it was when Obama took office, the unemployment rate would be close to 11%.

Now, the real unemployment rate that counts people who have given up looking for jobs, such as these 169,000 last month, the real unemployment rate which counts everybody is 14.4% unchanged. Minority unemployment, 18%, African-American. Folks, there’s no recovery. There are no jobs being created. Yeah, they created 157,000, but 169,000 people left the workforce. That’s a net negative. That is a net loss. You can’t have a growing economy with this many people not working. You cannot have a recovery. You cannot have an expansion. You cannot have rising incomes, wages. You cannot have increased economic output. You can’t have an economic recovery in an economy where 8.5 million people have lost their jobs because those jobs are gone. You just can’t. The mathematics alone makes it impossible.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I mentioned earlier today that the labor force participation rate is down 8.5 million jobs since Obama was inaugurated. That is a significant number, folks. We have lost not just 8.5 million jobs, not just people not working. There are 8.5 million fewer “openings” in common lingo. There are 8.5 million fewer job openings available since Obama took office. Today they’re reporting and going gaga over 157,000 jobs created in January. The media is not telling you that 169,000 jobs were destroyed in January.

Those 169,000 jobs just vanished.

There are 169,000 thousand fewer jobs to be had, which is gonna make it harder and harder for people who want a job to find one. There are fewer jobs. So the total is 8.5 million — 8.5 million! — and they have the gall to talk about being in a recovery and economic growth? So at the White House daily briefing, Jay Carney, the spokesman, thought that it was prudent to address this figure of 8.5 million jobs lost, gone forever (at least as long as Obama’s around), and here’s Jay Carney explaining why…

CARNEY: When this president took office in January 2009 we were in the midst of the worst recession since the Great Depression. We were in economic free fall. We were losing, we were hemorrhaging jobs at something like three-quarters of a million jobs per month. Uh, and the hole dug by that recession, uh, in jobs terms was more than eight and a half mmmmmillion.

RUSH: Bush’s fault.

Still!

We’re into the fifth year of the Obama regime, and he sends his press secretary out today to blame Bush. “Yeah, it’s even worse than we knew. It was so bad, 8.5 million jobs were lost, and there’s nothing we coulda done about it.” Now, I don’t expect ’em to admit that they’re responsible for it. In fact, I’m not surprised. What else would you expect this crew to say? It’s gotten to the point now where, if Obama’s gonna blame his predecessor, he’s blaming himself, because his predecessor is him.