RUSH: The news media today, gosh, the unemployment rate’s up to 9%, and they’re celebrating. They’re talking about some of the strongest job growth, with 244,000 new jobs, 62,000 of them from Mickey D’s, 62,000 from McDonald’s. Now, remember in the past, those jobs have been impugned by the Democrats and the left as meaningless, futureless hamburger flipper jobs without health care. Folks, I’ll tell you, if we had our news media of today back in the days of Herbert Hoover we would 
have never had a Depression, because it woulda never been reported as a depression. This isn’t even reporting. This is stenography that we have from the Drive-Bys today. We woulda never had a Great Depression. Nobody would have ever heard anything to get depressed about. Now, you can talk about 244,000 new jobs and all of that, but no president’s ever been reelected with the unemployment rate at 8% or over.
Did you watch the Republican debate last night? I did. Folks, I’m telling you something, it was inspiring. It actually was. It was good to finally see five or six guys, maybe five and a half guys, take it to Obama. It actually was comforting and reassuring. And there were some surprises along the way here. I’m sure those of you who watched it have your own take. I, of course, El Rushbo have the final take, which is why I will wait to tell you what I think about it ’til I hear a little bit — ’cause once I say something about something then there’s nothing left to be said. You didn’t watch it, Snerdley? No, no, it was not a dud. I mean the people on there that were duds were even entertaining, and Herman Cain overwhelmingly won. Frank Luntz has his focus group that Hannity puts on Fox after the debate. Herman Cain, according to that focus group, was the clear winner. Santorum was hyper. He was filled with fire and brimstone. Pawlenty, I thought, appeared very presidential. It was an upper all the way around. It really was. We can nitpick some things, and of course we will nitpick some things as the program unfolds before your very eyes.
Have you noticed, by the way, nobody is demanding that anybody prove that Obama killed the job market and the economy? They’re demanding proof that he killed Obama. It’s self-evident he’s killed the economy. Nobody’s demanding proof of that. We already know it. But there’s still doubt out there about the — (interruption) what’s this? There he goes again right here in the middle of this program, president of the United States speaking on job and energy initiatives, he’s in Indianapolis. We’re not going to JIP. We have too many important stories.
This next little blurb here, a woman in Oregon woke up from dental surgery with a foreign accent. Not kidding. They say she sounds European. Which makes me wonder, has Obama had dental surgery lately, ’cause he’s sounding an awful lot like George W. Bush. Oh, you know that will tick ’em off. They won’t like that. The news media, speaking of which, the Drive-Bys are ecstatic. As you know the gasoline price has fallen. Well, the oil price is plummeting. Commodities in general are plummeting, and here’s a montage of the media rejoicing over this news.
COSTELLO: Gas prices are actually down. You can barely see the drop, but this could signal a bigger drop ahead.
MEADE: For the first time in a month and a half, gas prices did not go up this morning. The average price dipped fractions of a penny.
CHETRY: After 44 straight days of going up, gas prices are actually down.
GUTHRIE: Is this a trend? Will people start seeing cheaper gas?
RUSH: That’s Savannah Guthrie wrapping it up from NBC. It was Carol Costello, that’s my stalker at CNN, Robin Meade, Headline News, Kiran Chetry from CNN, just a microcosm of infobabes orgasmic over the falling price. And of course it’s all looked at through the prism of how it will help Obama. For example, here’s a story on unemployment, and this is from the MSNBC website. The headline: “Job Pickup May Not Be Enough to Aid Obama — President riding high moving into election cycle, but economy lurks.” He’s not riding high. He is eminently beatable and that’s one thing that became clear from the Republican debate last night. He is beatable. And, by the way, somebody I know ran into somebody you see on television all the time, a former Democrat pollster in a greenroom of a TV show who said to my friend that the internal polling in the White House is horrible on the Obama reelect, that the internal reelect number that they have in the White House, the internal number is bad, and that’s why you see them doing all the reimaging, reimagining, all the things they’re doing with Obama to try to build him back up, because their reelect numbers, contrary to what the Drive-Bys are saying in public, and contrary to what all the State-Controlled Media commentators are doing in cable TV, the White House internal reelect numbers are not good. Don’t doubt me on this.
There is no way that somebody presiding over this mess is a shoo-in. There’s no way that somebody that’s the architect of this disaster is a lock. And yet people are coming along trying to convince everybody that that is the case because they’re trying to dispirit you and they’re trying to dispirit any would-be Republican presidential candidates into not taking it to Obama. I mean there’s this ongoing, “He’s got it wrapped up. You know what, we really can’t win.” In fact, one of the theories out there — gotta share this with you — one of the theories out there, and the theory includes the fact that the regime is trying to create this notion that things are so bad — and this is gonna sound odd — that things are so bad it would be risky to change horses in the middle of the stream, that doing that would only make it worse, that programs are in place to fix this. The last thing we need is somebody running in there and disrupting and tearing it all down. So one of the themes that they’re trying to create from the White House on down, or up, depending on your perspective, is that no matter how bad things are, changing horses right now would be the absolute worst thing for the country. That’s what they’re trying to create. I know it doesn’t sound logical, but that’s what we’re faced with, with this bunch. I mean that’s the depths to which they have to plunge in order to come up with reason.
But anyway, back to the MSNBC story. Look at the headline: “Job Pickup May Not Be Enough to Aid Obama.” It’s written by a guy named John Schoen, who’s the senior producer at MSNBC.com. It’s not TV network, same bunch, but this is the website crew. “This week’s stunning news of the death of Osama Bin Laden– ” who was killed by Obama, by the way, “– gave President Barack Obama a much-needed bounce in voter opinion polls just as the 2012 president campaign grinds into gear. But the glow could fade if job growth doesn’t accelerate.”
Okay, so job pickup may not be enough to help Obama. Can I ask you people at MSNBC, have you had any thought, did it ever cross your mind to ask whether or not job growth is enough to help the unemployed? I mean after all, what are we talking about here? Do you realize how silly, childish, narcissistic, and immature it sounds to talk about the unemployment rate only within the context of how it helps or hurts Obama? What about the people who are unemployed, out of work? Is there any thought given to them and what economic news might mean to them? Well, there is here at this program, hosted by me, The Big Voice of the Right.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: “US companies added more jobs than expected in April, but the unemployment rate rose for the first time in five months and the economy’s recent slowdown is likely to keep a lid on gains. Nonfarm payrolls rose by 244,000 last month as the private sector posted the strongest employment gain in five years,” according to the Labor Department. Private sector employers, which account for about 70% of the workforce, but not for long, added 268,000 jobs in April. That’s the biggest increase since February. The unemployment rate, obtained from a separate household survey, rose to 9% from 8.8% in March. Remember, now, how can you add jobs and the rate go up? It’s the convoluted way that they are tabulating how many jobs are available to be had and a number of other tricky manipulations.
The Wall Street Journal says here that “the mixed data weren’t what analysts expected. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswire had forecast payrolls would rise by 185,000 and that the jobless rate would remain unchanged at 8.8%.” In other words, they had no clue what was coming and they were making wild guesses on all fronts. Sixty-two thousand of the jobs, 62,000 of the 244 were McDonald’s, the previously impugned hamburger flipper jobs with no health care. When these jobs were being created during the Bush years the Democrats impugned and ridiculed these jobs. “Well, yeah, that’s not much. You can’t feed a family of four on a job at McDonald’s, it’s horrible, no health care.” They just ran these jobs down, they were worthless.
One of the websites that I keep track of on matters of economics is a place called ZeroHedge.com, and there’s a poster there by the name of Tyler Durden who occasionally posts some interesting stuff. For example, “Today’s Bureau of Labor Statistics number 244,000 jobs is great until you exclude the 62,000 from McDonalds hirings, and 175,000 from the Birth Death Adjustment.” The net new jobs in the private sector is 7,000. That’s the net new jobs.
“A history of Birth Death adjustments which ultimately get washed out in the annual massive downward NFP revision which nobody really ever cares about though,” but the birth-death model — this is basically replacement job formula. And so what Mr. Durden is saying here is that only 7,000 actual jobs were created. The others were McDonald’s and a special hiring program, and 175,000 birth-death model, fantasy jobs, that weren’t really created. Those jobs don’t really exist, the birth-death, it’s an accounting gimmick, the simplest way that I’m gonna try to explain it. So a net increase of 7,000.
Let’s go the audio sound bites. Austan Goolsbee, also known as Ichabod Crane, was on CNBC Squawk on the Street today, and talking to him was Erin Burnett on her last day. She broke down in tears, by the way. Yes, she did. She did a Patsy Schroeder today because she’s going to CNN. Well, no, she’s not crying ’cause of that, she wants to go to CNN. She wants to go to CNN ’cause she wants to branch out and cover more than just business news. She didn’t get the Today gig. I don’t even know if she was up for that. Savannah Guthrie got the Today gig.
You know where I read about that? (laughing) Page Six had a story about whether or not her boyfriend will follow her to New York. (laughing) Matt Lauer, his contract doesn’t perspire ’til December, so Matt Lauer is still there. It’s Meredith Vieira that’s leaving. Meredith Vieira is leaving and thought maybe Ann Curry would go in there but they’re gonna put Savannah Guthrie in there, which means F. Chuck Todd’s gonna need a new TV wife for his morning show that he shares with her. Anyway, it was Erin Burnett talking to Ichabod Crane, Austan Goolsbee, about the jobs numbers. She said, “What was your first reaction? Were you surprised? Because a lot of the claims data for the past month has been worse and worse and worse.”
GOOLSBEE: I was pleasantly surprised. It’s a solid number. This is the strongest job creation in five years. More than five years. We’ve added more than a quarter million jobs a month over the last quarter, and we got more than two million over the last 14 months. We’re moving the right way.
RUSH: There’s no way. Two million jobs in the last 14 months? This is why people doubt ’em when they say they got Bin Laden. Well, it is. There’s no way two million jobs in 14 months, there’s no way. So Erin Burnett said, “If we kicked up from 8.8 to 9%, how much higher could we go on the unemployment rate even as the job market is strengthening? And I ask that, Austan, because obviously politically the unemployment rate is really the key headline.”
GOOLSBEE: The thing is we have — unemployment rate hasn’t just been ticking down; it’s been really plummeting down, biggest drop in 27 years. So of course they’re gonna be some bumps up and bumps down as you either get changes in labor force participation or just the monthly survey that’s used for the unemployment rate’s got a lot of variability in it. If you look at the trend, it’s clearly moving the right way, and if you’re putting up jobs numbers like the ones we have been putting up for the last three months, quarter million a month, steadily that’s gonna be bringing the unemployment rate down, regardless of what the short-term gyrations are.
RUSH: You have not been putting up a quarter of a million jobs a month. They’re not a quarter of a million jobs this month. There are 7,000. At any rate, Erin Burnett’s question to Ichabod here basically was, “So what? The unemployment rate went up to 9%, and that’s what everybody sees.” And I would say, no, that’s not what everybody sees. The Drive-Bys are not reporting the unemployment rate. Have you noticed? If it were Bush they’d be reporting unemployment up to 9 percent. But with Obama — I mean here, the Wall Street Journal headline: “The Economy Added 244,000 Jobs,” AP: “The Economy Booming.” You have to dig deep to find out the unemployment rate went up to 9%. No, no, no, they’re not making the unemployment rate the focal point. Okay, that’s Austan Goolsbee.
Mort Zuckerman was on MSNBC, Jansing & Company, they had a fill-in host in there today, Richard Lui. Zuckerman is the editor of US News & World Report, and Lui said,”What do you make of that, when you break it down, you look at manufacturing and retail and the rest, what do you make of the unemployment numbers today?”
ZUCKERMAN: The headline unemployment rate that you are referring to measures people who have applied for a job in the last four weeks. That’s a misleading time span when you’ve had six million people who have been out of work for six months or longer. If you measure it with U6 rather than U3 measured by people who have applied for a job within the last six months who don’t have work then you’re looking at an employment rate with 15.7% and if you add to that the 2.3 million discouraged workers who have just given up then you’re looking at a real unemployment rate of close to double the 9%, close to 18%. So we have not really made much headway in terms of reducing unemployment.
RUSH: Mort Zuckerman there of US News, and he’s an Obamaite. He wants to report good economic news for the regime. But he’s got his honest cap on. Now, Goolsbee (imitating Goolsbee) “And here we are, why, we created two million jobs in 14 months, we are creating jobs, a quarter of a million a month,” who are we listening to, Charlie Sheen? No, more like Joe Biden. Let’s go back, March 10th of 2010 on Hardball, MSNBC. They were in Jerusalem. Chris Matthews talking to Bite Me, said, “How come the Republicans bashed the brains into this President, saying he did the bail-out bill, when Bush did the bail-out? Why do they confuse the bail-out bill with the jobs stimulus bill and get away with it? They keep doing this conflation trick they did to get us into war with Iraq. They keep conflating the bail-out that Bush did with the jobs stimulus bill, and the Democrats get blamed for it.” I just want to know, Mr. Vice President, why do they keep confusing this? Bush did the bailout. Bush did TARP. Why does Obama keep being blamed for it? And Biden finally had to go, “Let me answer.” And he did.
BIDEN: What I keep saying in the White House: patience. Have a little patience here. Things are beginning to turn around, they’re beginning to turn around, not only in fact in the economy, they’re beginning to turn around and figuring out the Republicans are for nothing. What are they for? What have they offered? This is not a hard thing to sell until we start actually every month seeing 100,000 created, 200,000 jobs created, the economy moving, it’s gonna move. Patience.
RUSH: March of 2010, yeah, thanks, Mr. Bite Me, you told the country to be patient, the economy is coming back, Republicans don’t care, not for anything, what are they for? Just have patience. So now they’ve got this 244,000 number, and as far as they’re concerned, that’s been this way for 14 months. So basically here’s what we have. And this is the way to look at this, ladies and gentlemen. What do we have here? We have unemployment at 9%, right? We have Ichabod Crane, Austan Goolsbee, and all these other people out of the regime on television happy as hell. Therefore what do we have? We have the Obama administration and the media happy with 9% unemployment. Happy with the unemployment rate at 9%, the gasoline price at four bucks a gallon. It’s the right trend, you see. Yes. Unemployment rate, 9%. Regime happy. Don’t forget that.
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