White House Struggles to Halt Flap Over Jobs Report By Steve Holland, Reuters
The White House on Thursday sought to contain the fallout over an overly optimistic forecast that 2.6 million jobs will be created this year and some Republicans expressed concern about the damage being done to President Bush.
Bush, who has distanced himself from the forecast as Democrats emphasize sluggish job growth, tried to change the subject by accusing Democrats of wanting to raise taxes by not making his tax cuts permanent. …
The chairman of Bush’s re-election campaign, Marc Racicot, continued a general Bush administration retreat from the president’s own job forecast saying the 2.6 million figure was only a “stated goal.” …
Since 112,000 jobs were created in January, meeting the goal would require adding an average 335,000 new jobs each month all year — well above the 166,000 per month predicted by a recent survey of forecasters by the Blue Chip Economic Indicators newsletter. [mjh: only 1,000 jobs were created in December 2003; nearly 3 million have been lost under Bush’s watch.]
In fact, the White House had implied that 3.8 million jobs would be created this year by projecting about 3 percent growth in the number of jobs in 2004.
RUSSERT: The Bush-Cheney first three years, the unemployment rate has gone up 33 percent, there has been a loss of 2.2 million jobs. We’ve gone from a $281 billion surplus to a $521 billion deficit. The debt has gone from 5.7 trillion, to $7 trillion, up 23 percent. Based on that record, why should the American people rehire you as CEO?
BUSH: Sure, because I have been the President during a time of tremendous stress on our economy and made the decisions necessary to lead that would enhance recovery. …
RUSSERT: But when you proposed your first tax cut in 2001, you said this was going to generate 800,000 new jobs. Your tax cut of 2003, create a million new jobs. That has not happened.
BUSH: Well, it’s happening. It’s happening. And there is good momentum when it comes to the creation of new jobs. …
RUSSERT: How, why, as a fiscal conservative as you like to call yourself, would you allow a $500 billion deficit and this kind of deficit disaster?
BUSH: Sure. The budget I just proposed to the Congress cuts the deficit in half in five years. …
RUSSERT: That’s a very important point. Every president since the Civil War who has gone to war has raised taxes, not cut them.
BUSH: Yeah.
RUSSERT: Raised to pay for it. Why not say, I will not cut taxes any more until we have balanced the budget? If our situation is so precious and delicate because of the war, why do you keep cutting taxes and draining money from the treasury?
BUSH: Well, because I believe that the best way to stimulate economic growth is to let people keep more of their own money. …
RUSSERT: How about no more tax cuts until the budget is balanced?
BUSH: Well, that’s a hypothetical question which I can’t answer to you because I don’t know how strong the economy is going to be. …
RUSSERT: Are you prepared to lose?
BUSH: No, I’m not going to lose. [mjh: is that just confidence?]
RUSSERT: If you did, what would you do?
BUSH: Well, I don’t plan on losing. I have got a vision for what I want to do to for the country. See, I know exactly where I want to lead. I want to lead us, I want to lead this world toward more peace and freedom. I want to lead this great country to work with others to change the world in positive ways, particularly as we fight the war on terror, and we got changing times here in America, too. [mjh: what with American Fascism and all that.]