Bill Press this weekend said Barack Obama has created more jobs in the past 20 months than George W. Bush did in his entire eight years in office.
As readers will see from the actual data compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Press's comments made on the "McLaughlin Group" were so false it's laughable (video follows with transcript and commentary):
MONICA CROWLEY: You have a very chronically high unemployment rate. You have a president who looked like right after the trillion dollar stimulus he checked out on the jobs issue. When you talk about compromise, there's nothing in this man's character…
BILL PRESS: 3.2 billion [sic] jobs…
CROWLEY: …or political temperament to suggest moderation.
BILL PRESS: …created by the stimulus. You can’t ignore it. You may want to ignore it. It’s a, he created more jobs...
CROWLEY: He blew a trillion dollars to no affect.
PRESS: My turn. He’s created more jobs in 20 months than George Bush did in eight years.
Really Bill? Why don't we look at the facts.
According to the BLS's Establishment Survey, there were 132.4 million nonfarm workers in America in January 2001. When Bush left office in January 2009, this number was 133.5 million - a 1.3 million increase.
As just released last Friday, this number is now 130.5 million - a 3 million decrease since Obama was inaugurated.
According to the BLS's Household Survey, there were 137.8 million total workers in January 2001. This number was 142.2 million in January 2009, a 4.4 million increase.
As just released last Friday, this number is now 139.1 million - a 3.1 million decrease since Obama was inaugurated.
As such, depending on which survey you look at, Bush's job creation in his eight years was either 1.3 million or 4.4 million. Both surveys show job losses under Obama at basically 3 million.
Press was either blatantly lying about these numbers or shamefully ignorant.
Of course, what can we expect from a man who just two months ago predicted that Nancy Pelosi would be partying on election night while John Boehner's office would be a morgue?
But on a more serious note, one of the finest weekly political talk shows for decades has been the "McLaughlin Group." Indeed, some of the brightest minds in the game are regularly John's guests.
Bill Press is not someone that should ever be on this program for he is shamelessly partisan and just like this weekend quite often clueless about the facts.
For the integrity of this fine weekly staple, McLaughlin's schedulers really ought to remove Press's name from their Rolodexes.
