RUSH: Time to party down, gang. Time to party. Well, ’cause of what I’m saying about Romney. Sununu and the Huckster are not happy with me over what they think I’m saying about Romney. Anyway, we’ll get to all that. Don’t get me distracted. It’s party time. It’s time to party down, folks, it’s never been better. Eight and a half percent unemployment, the economy is back, Obama’s policies are working. The media is having orgasm after orgasm after orgasm. I kid you not, 8.5%. It’s time to throw a party. They have so dumbed down our expectations. And all of this, every syllable of it I predicted. Get into the eights and it doesn’t matter, it is going to be mediagasm after mediagasm after mediagasm.
And, by the way, I’ve got a question. Here’s Obama out there. Could somebody explain to me something very quickly? What is the difference in laying off soldiers and laying off cops? On the one hand, Obama cannot wait to cut soldiers. He cannot wait to lay off soldiers. On the other hand, we cannot allow budget cuts to touch firemen or cops or teachers. What’s the difference? Look how eager Obama is to cut soldiers. Look how eager Obama is to cut uniformed personnel that protect us in the US military, but he will not even entertain one cut of uniformed personnel that protect us in our cities. What’s the difference? Seriously, folks, what is the difference? Exactly right. The military doesn’t have a union, and it doesn’t kick anything back to Obama.
But it’s deeper than that. It’s deeper than that. Obama considers the military to be the focus of evil in the world. The US military is responsible for the misery in the world and all the imperialism. But I don’t get the difference, I mean in a strictly intellectual sense. So the next time you have some leftist talking to you, either celebrating, angry, what have you, about the need to cut the military you ask ’em, “Well, how come we can’t cut firemen then? How come we can’t cut cops?” No difference, they’re first responders. Cops and firemen, sacrosanct, we can’t cut one of them? Why, our country will fall apart; our communities will fall apart; our children will be hurt; our children will be unsafe. Soldiers, get the hell rid of ’em. Cut ’em, cut the military, pare it back. Thanks to Barack Obama, the visceral hate for the military, most leftists have it; Obama has it.
He takes his anti-war mentality, applies it as president, loves securing military defeat and humiliation, but when it comes to the cops, oh, no, no, no. Not one police officer will lose his job. We will not have a press conference, we’ll not go anywhere explaining why that police department had to be cut back, why that police department had to be cut back. No, no, no, no, no. No excuse will ever be offered, no justification. In fact, every effort will be made to make sure that we don’t cut a single cop. In fact, it’s even worse than that. Obama and the Democrats will tell you that that’s what the Republicans want to do is cut cops and firemen and make your kids less safe. Whenever we have to get serious about austerity, bringing budgets back into line, as you know, the Democrats “Well, the first thing we have to do is cut cops and firemen and teachers.” No. But when it comes to cutting the military, why, that’s a snap, why, we don’t even think about it.
But now back to this 8.5%, folks. They are celebrating, even this as fraudulent as it is, this 8.5% is fraudulent. The news is out there something like 200,000 jobs created, surging in December. However, 42,000 of them are seasonally adjusted couriers and messengers. In December, a category called couriers and messengers, they’re hired during the holiday season, they’re temps. Forty-two thousand of them. They will not be counted in January and February ’cause they’re let go. But, look, we could nitpick here on the numbers. That misses the point. The point here is what we were talking about yesterday. The truth is not what is important here; it’s what’s being reported. I could sit here all day and tell you how these jobs numbers are not accurate. It’s not gonna matter. The news is Obama’s policies are working. The news is it’s finally kicking in. The news is the economy is growing. The news is jobs are being created.
Those of us who have the truth and the facts on our side are seen as nitpickers, just can’t get with the program, don’t want America to do well. Every bit of this, every bit of this was entirely predicted. So here we are at 8.5% unemployment and we’re being told we need to celebrate this. As fraudulent as that number is, it’s party time. The black unemployment rate’s still 16%. The number of jobs that have been destroyed in the country is over two million. The universe of available jobs is way down. There’s nothing worth celebrating in this, is my point. And yet we are being told that it’s party time, time to celebrate. Since when do we celebrate millions of unemployed people, millions on government benefits because they can’t find jobs, and then claim this is progress or claim that this is a recovery? This is offensive to me. But it’s where we are today.
Ladies and gentlemen, this assumes that we accept the notion of a systemically high unemployment level, the new normal. This is it. This is great news. This is the Obama recovery working. Millions of unemployed, we celebrate it. Millions on government benefits ’cause they can’t find jobs, we celebrate it. And then we claim this is progress. So we accept the notion of a systemically high unemployment level when in fact we know this isn’t necessary. We know how to break through the roadblocks that Obama has constructed to get to real economic growth. There is no economic growth taking place and that’s the truth that’s not being reported and that’s what underlies the myth and the fraud that’s being reported today.
There is no economic recovery taking place and yet we’re being told that there is and furthermore we’re being told to celebrate it and we’re being told that Obama has made it possible. Fraud after fraud after fraud after fraud. Yeah, that’s right, it wasn’t but a few short months ago the black caucus was ticked off. The Congressional Black Caucasians, they’re all ticked off because there wasn’t significant job creation in their community, and there still isn’t. Unemployment in the black community is still at 16%.
Our buddy James Pethokoukis: If the same number of jobs existed in the country today as existed when Obama was inaugurated, the unemployment rate would be 10.9% today, not 8.5%. It’d be 10.9, 11%. So all this money… Let’s take a look at what got us here, folks. I know sometimes people ask, “Rush, do you ever feel like you’re beating your head against the wall?” Yeah, I do. Of course I do. Don’t you? Don’t you feel like you’re beating your head against the wall when you know you’re up against a bunch of fraud and all you’ve got is the truth on your side and you’re banging your head up against the wall and you can’t convince people of it?
Well, people are being convinced. I guarantee you, though, there are a lot of people today who are buying into this: The ill-informed, the uninformed. If the election were held today, even with this news, Obama loses. But this is January. We’ve got 11 more months of this kind of stuff. (interruption) No, I’m not going anywhere. (laughing) I’m not going anywhere, and you’re not worried. Okay, well, then so be it. But let’s take a look. We got 8.5% unemployment, and it’s time to party down! How did we get here? All of the money that’s been spent, all of the debt that’s been created, all of the deficits. Marco Rubio has sent a letter to Obama: “You are about to make this a deadbeat nation.”
Our national debt is trickling ever closer to $16 trillion. When Obama took office, the national debt was barely over ten! We’ve added that much to the national debt with annual deficits, and we are told to celebrate today. So it cost that much money to get us to this wonderful unemployment rate of 8.5%. Mind you, no president since FDR has been reelected with an unemployment rate over 7.2% — and the media is reporting that today, but you know what else they’re doing? They’re saying, “This time it’s different because the trend line is what’s going to be important.” By the time we get to the November elections, the “trend line” is what’s going to matter; and they’re telling us they’re gonna take care of that. They’re gonna be reporting the trend is continually down.
So 8.5% unemployment, millions of unemployed people, millions of jobs lost, millions of people on government benefits because they can’t find jobs — and this is the progress we have, this is what we have to show for trillions of dollars in deficit spending. Trillions of dollars! The unemployment rate is still higher than when Obama took office. The media is reporting, “The unemployment rate lower than it’s been in three years!” They don’t tell you lower than since Obama was inaugurated, but that’s the truth: $5 trillion in deficit later, we have an 8.5% unemployment rate. That’s it? This is what we’re supposed to party down over? And of course we have to provide the perspective here because few others will.
So we’ve got $6 trillion in new deficits. We ignore the millions who have dropped out of the workforce, we ignore all those who are holding part time rather than full-time jobs, and the best Obama can come with — the best the Democrats can come up with, the best the media can come up with — is 8.5%, and we’re supposed to celebrate today. How much have these jobs cost? Morning news reports this is a good picture. There are six million fewer jobs today than there were in 2008, folks! There are six million fewer jobs available in this country than there were three years ago. The unemployment rate is 15.2% when you include those who have dropped out and those who want full-time jobs but have to take part-time jobs. That’s the latest figure. So the Obama plan: Shrink the workforce, expand the welfare state, and then claim economic progress. Then slash the military, take that money and subsidize public sector employees who vote reliably Democrat, like NEA members.
That’s the Obama plan in a nutshell — and that’s where we are.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: The Associated Press has given away the game, as far as reporting on the economy and how it will be this year. In their article today on the jobless rate in December with this really exciting party down 8.5% unemployment rate. AP claims, “The unemployment level may matter less to Obama’s reelection chances if the rate continues to fall. History suggests that presidents’ reelection prospects hinge less on the unemployment rate itself than on the rate’s direction during the year or two before Election Day.” Isn’t that convenient? And, of course, regardless what the unemployment rate is, what direction do you think it will be reported to be going? (interruption)
That’s, of course, correct. They will be reporting the unemployment rate as falling. All predictable.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: The Washington Post on the unemployment news (this is Michael Fletcher): “Unemployment Outlook Remains Mixed — Indications are that the nation’s gloomy jobs picture continues to brighten, but experts disagree on two crucial points: The pace of improvement and whether the recent gain in momentum will continue through 2012.” It’s actually not “mixed;” it’s quite clear. Some people are trying to mix up the unemployment outlook, is what’s going on here. The game being played is to massage and make up and falsely report the outlook here. But throughout this Washington Post piece, the “experts” agree: It still remains gloomy. How could it not? Look at all of the millions of people who have given up looking for work!
Look at the millions of jobs that we used to have that we don’t have, the millions of people on government support programs who otherwise would not be on them because they can’t find jobs — and yet we’re told today that we shall celebrating. It’s time to party hardy, time to party down. From… What is this? I don’t know what this website is. CrewOf42.com: 15.8% is the black unemployment level, and it is up in December, despite 200,000 jobs being created. I guess none of them were for African-Americans. It’s 15.8% for black unemployment. Overall unemployment rate lowest in three years, and that’s great news, but the black unemployment rate is worse than ever at 15.8%. So where will be the Congressional Black Caucasians on this? Certainly they’re not going to be happy.
RUSH: I’m also doing some research. I just got a note that I’ve got to research. If you look at the raw numbers of unemployed people, the number actually went up by more than 70,000, is the claim here that I just received. I’m checking this because the number, 200,000 jobs created, but then the experts were expecting a loss of jobs, so there’s a lot of massaging of the numbers going on here. Most of the predictions I saw expected an increase of 150,000 jobs. I never saw anybody expecting to lose 400,000. So all these numbers are flying around and I’ve gotta double-check this, but I really want to check this number that if you look at the number of unemployed it actually went up by more than 70,000, more unemployed, raw numbers than last month, than November. I gotta double-check.
Regardless, whatever’s going on, the number’s being massaged, and actually the number is secondary, as AP has given away. It’s the direction, it’s the momentum, it’s the initiative. It’s sort of like the media on this recess appointment. There’s a story here from TheDailyCaller.com, and this story is about how the media and the White House are having the biggest time frustrating the Republicans. The White House and the media know that this was an illegal appointment, but they’re having the most wonderful time seeing how frustrated the Republicans are over it. And so this is the next nine months in a nutshell. The media will be in unquestioned adulation of the president, of the Democrats, like they were with Clinton.
The fact that Clinton got away with all that stuff is what impressed them. They knew Clinton was lying; they knew Clinton was doing Lewinsky; they knew Clinton was doing all this. The fact he was able to get away with it with their help, that was the thrill. And it’s the same thing here with Obama. So we do not have a media that is in any way focused on news, truth, anything of the sort. They are totally focused on how much fun it is to flummox the opposition and how when the White House does it how wonderful that is and how the media will help do that.
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