September Jobs Report Is In

[Patti]

The Associated Press
Updated: 9:04 a.m. ET Oct. 8, 2004

WASHINGTON - Companies added 96,000 jobs to their payrolls in September, fewer than economists forecast for the last employment report before Election Day, highlighting a modest pace of hiring that has become an issue in President Bush’s bid for another term.

The four hurricanes striking Florida and other coastal states the past two months “appears to have held down employment growth, but not enough to change (the overall jobs picture) materially,” the Labor Department said Friday in assessing September’s national employment situation.

The nation’s civilian unemployment rate remained at 5.4 percent.

Job growth was held down by losses in manufacturing, retail and information services. September’s net increase of 96,000 payroll jobs was less than August’s rise, which was revised down in Friday’s report from 144,000 to 128,000.

Though 1.8 million jobs have been added to the payrolls of U.S. businesses since August 2003, there are about 800,000 fewer jobs — overall — than when Bush took office in January 2001.

That’s a big political issue, especially in Rust Belt battleground states that have lost thousands of manufacturing jobs during Bush’s presidency.

Bush’s Democratic challenger, John Kerry, widened his lead on the question of who would create jobs. In a new AP-Ipsos Public Affairs poll, 54 percent of respondents favored Kerry on job creation, and 40 percent liked Bush. Less than half of likely voters, 47 percent, approved of Bush’s performance on the economy.

Friday’s report was sure to be closely scrutinized on both the Republican and Democratic sides, which offer starkly different views of the U.S. economy. Bush says the economy is growing steadily and jobs are being created. Kerry says jobs are being created, but there aren’t enough new jobs to keep pace with population growth.

Economists were predicting payrolls to rise by 150,000, but were uncertain of the impact of the hurricanes on the figures.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6205119/

[gldstwmn]

Well, tonight's debate should be interesting, what with this news and the beheading this morning. :distress:

[dissention]

The actual job growth is 30% below the estimate. :laugh: And almost all jobs created were in the service industry, with 18k being lost in manufacturing. Bad news for ChimpCo.

[strandinthewind]

Well, tonight's debate should be interesting, what with this news and the beheading this morning. :distress:

not to mention the new report that the intelligence that W said proved Iraq was foaming at the mouth to attack us was just flat out wrong - the conclusion being the rush to war was unwarranted and perhaps action should have been tempered with wisdom :mad:

[dissention]

not to mention the new report that the intelligence that W said proved Iraq was foaming at the mouth to attack us was just flat out wrong - the conclusion being the rush to war was unwarranted and perhaps action should have been tempered with wisdom :mad:

Did you see that article in the Times the other day about Iraq and centrifuge? It was the biggest article they ever printed (3 ENTIRE pages) and it literally deconstructed EVERY claim of the administration. It event alked about how experts on Powell's staff told him not to say anything about centrifuge ebcause it was false but he did it anyway at the UN. It used the actual memos and everything. If anything deserves an award for journalism, it's that particular piece. The authors were even on Charlie Rose the other night talking about it.

[strandinthewind]

Did you see that article in the Times the other day about Iraq and centrifuge? It was the biggest article they ever printed (3 ENTIRE pages) and it literally deconstructed EVERY claim of the administration. It event alked about how experts on Powell's staff told him not to say anything about centrifuge ebcause it was false but he did it anyway at the UN. It used the actual memos and everything. If anything deserves an award for journalism, it's that particular piece. The authors were even on Charlie Rose the other night talking about it.

I read it. I think most of America, sadly, does not care.

[Patti]

I read it. I think most of America, sadly, does not care.

Unfortunately, I have to agree with you here. I work in a very small office in a pretty conservative area. My boss and I had a long discussion about politics today and he said as much as he doesn't like Dubya, he feels he "can't" vote for a Democrat. I brought up many points as to why this election is different, jobs numbers, the war, how this administration lied, etc., and he just said "I can't do it." Needless to say, I was pretty frustrated.

[gldstwmn]

I read it. I think most of America, sadly, does not care.

That's because it can't be explained in 30 seconds or less. :rolleyes:

[DeeGeMe]

So I'm driving around town today and every W sticker I see happens to be on the most beat up looking cars you can see. Uhm--do these people not get that this president is making them poorer all the time and not only that, he's bankrupting the future of our children with his billion dollar deficits?

[strandinthewind]

I figure this thread is as good as any much less a new one :cool:

In the debate last night both candidates made some factually incorrect statements. So . . .

Fact Check: Truth on Taxes, Jobs

Friday, October 08, 2004

ST. LOUIS — President Bush (search) said he raised the child tax credit by $1,000, when in fact his tax package did half that much. And not even a fresh jobs report could make John Kerry (search) get it right when he talked about employment losses under the president.

A mix of familiar misstatements and some new ones came out of the second presidential debate. The town-hall format was looser Friday, and so were some of the facts.

A day after acknowledging in the clearest terms yet that Saddam Hussein (search ) had no weapons of mass destruction when the United States invaded Iraq, Bush declared in the debate: "Saddam Hussein was a threat because he could have given weapons of mass destruction to terrorist enemies."

Kerry charged, "The president has presided over an economy where we've lost 1.6 million jobs."

Kerry meant — but once again did not say — that those were private sector job losses. Overall, with employment gains in the public sector, the economy has lost 821,000 jobs in Bush's time, according to the last employment report to be released before the election.

Talking up his tax cuts, Bush said, "You remember we increased that child credit by $1,000." Actually, his package increased the child credit to $1,000, up by $500.

Also in the debate:

Bush said of Usama bin Laden's Al Qaeda (search ) organization, "We've already (got) 75 percent of his people," a loose interpretation of intelligence findings that up to three-quarters of the group's leadership from before Sept. 11, 2001 — not the rank and file — has been run down.

Kerry, defending himself from the knock that he's wishy-washy, denied that he changed positions on Bush's education reforms, now criticizing what he voted for. He said his complaint with the changes is that Bush did not put enough money behind them.

But Kerry's problems with the No Child Left Behind Act (search ) have gone beyond that. He also says too much emphasis is placed on tests for measuring student achievement and that additional factors, such as attendance and parental satisfaction, should be considered.

Kerry startled Bush by saying that the president is counted as a small business for tax purposes because he once earned $84 from a timber company he owns.

"I own a timber company?" Bush asked. "That's news to me." Then he paused and added, "Need some wood?"

That baffling exchange arises from an analysis by the Annenberg Public Policy Center's FactCheck.org debunking Bush's claims that Kerry's plans to raise taxes on the richest Americans would increase the tax burden on 900,000 small businesses.

The analysis found that the Bush campaign is counting every rich person who has even $1 of outside business income as a small business owner, even if they have no employees.

The analysis said even Bush qualifies under that definition because he reported $84 in income from his part-ownership of a timber enterprise on his 2001 federal tax return.

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,134939,00.html

[strandinthewind]

My fav. line of the debate was when W referred to green eyeshadow - I was like HELLO 70's DRUG FLASHBACK!!! :laugh:

TO be fair though, W held his own. He appeared confident and as if he knew what the hell he was talking about. While I do not agree with him or with what he said, he did appear confident :cool:

[strandinthewind]

(the syntax error is in bold :laugh: )

Poll: Bush, Kerry tie in 2nd debate
Candidates trade punches over taxes, jobs, health care, Iraq

ST. LOUIS, Missouri (CNN) -- The day after the second presidential debate, an initial poll indicates a statistical tie in Friday night's face-off between President Bush and Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry.

A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll taken right after the town hall meeting-style debate found respondents giving a slight, statistically insignificant edge to Kerry over Bush: 47 percent of them went for Kerry and 45 percent for Bush.

The survey had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 4 percentage points, making the results a virtual draw.

It did suggest that Bush had a significantly better performance than in the first debate, which respondents gave to Kerry by a margin of 53 percent to 37 percent.

The poll is a reflection of immediate impressions of respondents who are registered voters who watched the debate. (Full story)

On Saturday, Bush is scheduled to travel to Iowa and Minnesota for campaign events, following an appearance in Missouri, where the debate took place.

Kerry also is set to stump Saturday in Missouri, a state that could possibly be crucial to the election's outcome, where polls show the candidates are neck-and-neck.

From Missouri, Kerry is expected at events in two other battleground states -- Ohio and Florida.

Friday night, during the town meeting held at Washington University in St. Louis, the president was asked about a report released this week that said Saddam Hussein's regime had no weapons of mass destruction -- a key reason Bush gave for the U.S.-led Iraq war.

"I wasn't happy when we found out there wasn't weapons," Bush said. "But Saddam Hussein was a unique threat. And the world is better off without him in power. And my opponent's plans lead me to conclude that Saddam Hussein would still be in power, and the world would be more dangerous [if Kerry had been president]."

Kerry fired back, saying the president's policies have left Americans with a huge bill for the war in Iraq.

"If we'd used smart diplomacy, we could have saved $200 billion and an invasion of Iraq, and right now Osama bin Laden might be in jail or dead. That's the war on terror."

After Kerry accused him of going alone into Iraq, Bush interrupted the moderator, ABC's Charles Gibson, to demand that Kerry ask the British or Italian prime ministers if their participation was nonexistent.

Bush repeatedly told Kerry that when it came to his Senate record, "You can run, but you can't hide."

"I don't seen how you can lead this country in a time of war, in a time of uncertainty, if you change your mind because of politics," Bush said.

Kerry used the situation in Iraq to answer a voter's question about him appearing "wishy-washy."

"The president didn't find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, so he's really turned his campaign into a weapon of mass deception," Kerry said before he sought to explain how his positions on the Patriot Act, education and job creation had not changed.

Kerry also charged that Bush has shortchanged homeland security in favor of tax cuts for the rich, and called the Iraq war a "catastrophic mistake."

"The world is more dangerous today because the president didn't make the right judgments," Kerry said. "So what does he do? He's trying to attack me. He wants you to believe that I can't be president."

Bush denied speculation that the draft would be revived and said that instead, U.S. troops would be repositioned around the world.

But Kerry said refusing to let National Guard and Reserve troops leave the service was a "back-door draft."

Bush was much more forceful in his replies than he appeared during the first debate, where his performance was said to have been bumpy and tentative. He began several of his answers by taking a punch at Kerry. (Special Report: The debates)

In a reference to the sour faces he was said to have made during the previous debate, Bush responded to one of Kerry's statements by saying, ""That answer made me almost want to scowl."

Under the town meeting format the two candidates answered selected questions that were submitted from an audience of uncommitted voters -- voters who lean toward one or the other candidates but could change their minds.

After clashing over U.S. policies in Iraq, Bush and Kerry were questioned about health care, the environment and tax policies.

Bush denied he was blocking cheaper medicines from Canada from flowing into the United States and said he was just trying to ensure medications were safe.

Kerry accused the president of protecting only the pockets of the drug makers.

"We're not talking about Third World drugs. We're talking about drugs made right here in the United States of America that have American brand names on them and American bottles," Kerry said.

Kerry vowed he would not raise taxes but would roll back the cuts for wealthier Americans "to the level we were at with Bill Clinton, when people made a lot of money."

Bush shot back that the senator's plan would not just squeeze the rich.

Jobs were also an issue in the debate after a government report released Friday said that U.S. employers added 96,000 to their payrolls in September, while the unemployment rate stayed unchanged at 5.4 percent.

Bush said the answer was "less regulations if we want jobs here; legal reform if we want jobs here; and we've got to keep taxes low." Kerry answered that he would give tax incentives for companies to stay in the United States using American workers.

Kerry dismissed the president's labeling of him as a tax-and-spend liberal.

"The president is just trying to scare everybody here with throwing labels around. I mean, "compassionate conservative," what does that mean? Cutting 500,000 kids from after-school programs, cutting 365,000 kids from health care, running up the biggest deficits in American history. Mr. President, you're batting 0 for 2," Kerry said.

Bush gave a new answer to a familiar question when he was asked what mistakes he has made in office. Previously, he said he couldn't think of any right off the top of head. But this time he was prepared.

"I made some mistakes in appointing people, but I'm not going to name them. I don't want to hurt their feelings on national TV."

But, he said several times, the decision to invade Iraq was not a mistake.

Going into the debate, a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll showed the two candidates in a dead heat, with each polling at 49 percent among likely voters just 25 days before the election. (Special Report: America Votes 2004, Poll Tracker)

Bush and Kerry will meet for their third and final debate Wednesday in Tempe, Arizona. The subject of the face-off is to be domestic issues, such as the economy.

Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/10/09/debate.main/index.html

[gldstwmn]

My fav. line of the debate was when W referred to green eyeshadow - I was like HELLO 70's DRUG FLASHBACK!!! :laugh:

TO be fair though, W held his own. He appeared confident and as if he knew what the hell he was talking about. While I do not agree with him or with what he said, he did appear confident :cool:

Someone else explained the "battling green eyeshades" as the Kerry economic team and the Bush economic team seeing things two different ways. Mmmmkay. :lol:
He did appear confident, so confident, in fact, he was unbale to admit any mistakes he had made in his presidency and continued to defend invading Iraq on the premise of them having WMD's one day after the CIA published a report confirming there were none. :confused:

[dissention]

TO be fair though, W held his own. He appeared confident and as if he knew what the hell he was talking about. While I do not agree with him or with what he said, he did appear confident :cool:

That's the problem. His confidence made his numbers take a nosedive when it came to female voters. I think his winking is what put them over the edge. And many thought that he looked very cocky and unpresidential.

[gldstwmn]

That's the problem. His confidence made his numbers take a nosedive when it came to female voters. I think his winking is what put them over the edge. And many thought that he looked very cocky and unpresidential.

The winking car salesman-like unelected fraud in chief that is our president. Jesus, some days, I just can't take it.