RUSH: Now, the jobless rate is now official. Yesterday it was 9.2%. Today they’ve really officialized it. The unemployment rate is 9.4%. This is a 26-year high! How is that hope and change working for you? How is that stimulus working for you? Biden went on television today while Obama’s over there
wining and dining his wife in Paris and says, ‘You know what? We’re going to speed up the stimulus spending.’ They’re going to speed it up? What, you’re just going to do it by fiat or you going to go back to Congress and have legislation for this? These people are autocrats. They’re running everything now at the White House on their own initiative without consulting Congress. Of course the Democrats in Congress don’t care and the Republicans in Congress may not know. (I’m being charitable.)
But the fact is that government-controlled Associated Press is trying to spin record high — 26-year record high — unemployment rate as good news, and so is government-controlled Reuters. ‘US employers cut 345,000 jobs last month, the fewest since September and far less than forecast according to a government report on Friday that was more evidence the economy’s severe weakness was diminishing.’ Can we put this together and see if it adds up to you? Unemployment, they say, ‘is slowing’ and it has reached ‘a record high.’ Now, for those of you under 40 who attended public schools, I’m sure it makes perfect sense to you. Unemployment is slowing, the recession may be ending! Unemployment is now at a 26-year record high. And this, as I say, does not even include numbers of people who have given up. They’re not even trying to find work. Those numbers were always reported when the Bush administration ran the show.
But now that it’s Lord Obama, they do not report that number or even mention it. The real unemployment number, when you factor those people in, is like 16.9%. When you factor people in who are not trying to work — we had the story in the Los Angeles Times yesterday (government-run Los Angeles Times) a big story on ‘funemployment,’ the people not trying to find work and are enjoying being out of work and they’re traveling and they’re staying at beds-and-breakfasts and they’re living off their mom and dad. And they’re working at nonprofits. Oh, whoopee! It’s 16.9 or 17% real unemployment when you factor in the people that don’t care anymore and are not trying to find work. Here’s how the government-controlled media — we have a montage of government-controlled reporters, this is how they played it yesterday and today.
RICH EDSON: You put it in context, 345,000 jobs lost last month, not all that bad.
CHRISTINE ROMANS: The mass layoffs are slowing. We know it’s tough out there but there are indications that maybe the worst is bottoming here.
CONTESSA BREWER: 9.4%, it’s a grim number. I understand there’s a silver lining to this report.
HAMPTON PEARSON: A bit of a silver lining in that we are finally beginning to slow the rate of job losses.
ALAN KNUCKMAN: We’ve got this unemployment number. Not great numbers, but the market’s reacted to a positive, that they weren’t surprised.
RUSH: So there you have it. I mean, no matter where you go in the government-run media, a record high unemployment rate equals a bottoming out. It’s not that bad. Silver lining! A silver lining. If you’ve wondered what State-Run Media, state-run controlled media is government-run media, government-controlled media — this is what you get. This is no different than Pravda back in the days of the Soviet Union. This is no different than Granma down in Cuba reporting on Fidel Castro. This is no different than a Hugo Chavez media. This is no different than Iranian media. This is no different than the media Saddam controlled. Government-run media. I mean we’ve got record unemployment, the highest rate since 1983 and it’s good news! So good that Biden is going to go out there and speed up the stimulus spending. You want some more good news? Goldman Sachs is predicting that by the end of the year oil will be at $85 a barrel. Today it spiked at over $70 a barrel. Let me just check. Let me just check where it is right now. It is at 69 bucks a barrel. It peaked at over $70 today. They say $85 by the end of the year. So, my friends, the meaning of this is, if — and I mean if, capital ‘I,’ capital ‘F’ — if there is any recovery, despite Obama’s policies, $85-a-barrel gasoline is going to wipe it out.