[DaytonBuck]

Job loss distortions continue (9/7)

By Brendan Nyhan

Democrats continue to spin the number of jobs lost under President Bush.

John Kerry's campaign and the Democratic Party have frequently attacked the White House by taking the total number of net private sector jobs lost under Bush and presenting the figure as if it represents the total net job loss for his presidency. The actual figure for net job loss since January 2001 including both the private and public sectors is 913,000 jobs according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released on Sept. 4, which revised the figure down from 1.1 million in August. However, Democrats have repeatedly cited private sector job losses instead, which declined from approximately 1.8 million to 1.6 million when the new data were released, without noting the important qualifier.

For instance, before the announcement of the new data, Kerry's running mate, John Edwards, referred on August 31 to "1.8 million jobs gone." His campaign manager, Mary Beth Cahill, made a similar statement in advance of President Bush's convention speech on Sept. 2, saying, "The last four years have been an abject failure: almost 2 million lost jobs, 5 million more without health care coverage, health care and energy costs going through the roof and a mess in Iraq that has cost America over $200 billion."

The talking point was exaggerated still further by Congressman Frank Pallone, D-NJ, on CNN August 31. Pallone claimed that "if you look at it over the last four years, the number of jobs that have been lost is over two million jobs" and later added that "We lost over two million jobs in that four-year period."

Since the new figures came out, Kerry has cited the 1.6 million figure at least twice without clarification. In his radio address Saturday, Kerry claimed that "Over the past three years, we've lost 1.6 million jobs in the United States." And he repeated it in a statement released today.

These are part of a long pattern of Democratic trickery with net job loss figures that we have documented on our website and in our book. The media need to clarify the facts each and every time Kerry or his supporters make one of these deceptive claims.

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