Lies, damned lies & statistics

Last week Gallup CEO Jim Clifton took issue with the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) claim that unemployment in America was now hovering somewhere in the vicinity of 5.6%. Clifton said these numbers were “totally misleading” and maintains that the real percentage of unemployed Americans is closer to double the BLS figure.

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Apparently the BLS counts someone who is working two or three hours per week as employed. They do not count as unemployed people who have left the labor force and are no longer looking for work. Given that there are more than 92 million Americans of working age not participating in the workforce it doesn’t take an MIT degree in quantum theory to arrive at the conclusion that the BLS are talking through their hats. Steve Moore of Forbes Magazine recently wrote that under Obama one million Americans have dropped out of the work force. And it’s interesting that the largest percentage of people who’ve dropped out of the workforce is at the younger end of the spectrum. Employment among those aged 16-19 years has declined by nearly 5% under the Obama regime, while the only increase in workers occurred among those aged over 60. In his column, published last October, Moore stated that under Obama the workforce actually shrank by 3 percentage points, or 7.4 million less working people than prior to his inauguration. “Not since early 1978,” Moore writes, “has such a low proportion of the working-age population been in the labor force.” It’s interesting to note the 1978 reference, a time during which another Democrat President, the hapless Georgia peanut farmer, occupied the White House and, Like Obama, nearly ruined the country. It’s a small wonder Jim Clifton voiced concerns that he may “suddenly disappear” for calling the administration’s statistics “misleading.” The Gallup polling organization has been one of the most trusted and reliable polling organizations in America since 1935 and it wouldn’t surprise me if an unfortunate mishap were to befall Mr. Clifton, given the Obama Administration’s Chicago roots and propensity for hardball. With mainstream individuals like Clifton coming forward and pointing out that Americans are being lied to about pretty much everything, it further diminishes the credibility of the bat guano wing of the Democrat Party and may force the few sane Democrats that remain to rethink their allegiances. There’s no question that this administration has lost all legitimacy and the stench of their numerous scandals is beginning to reach even the loftiest of America’s elites. I don’t think that holding one’s nose works anymore, as the sulfurous fumes of multiple scandals (IRS, Benghazi, Fast & Furious, the five terrorists for a deserter swap, “if you like your doctor…” serial lies and Jonathan Gruber’s gleeful retelling of how he helped Obama screw “stupid American voters” into supporting a monstrous Ponzi scheme) are now burning the eyes. This pushback by our elites may not be enough to convince the Republican Congress to consider initiation of impeachment proceedings, but they may just be enough to keep this renegade president in check while the clock runs out.