from the folks at America Coming Together...
Lie of the Day, August 15
Economy – California Rhetoric: “I believe that when Americans have more take-home pay to spend, to save or invest, the whole economy grows, and someone is more likely to find a job.” [Source: President Bush’s remarks to B/C ’04 luncheon, 8/15/03]
Reality: Working families do not have more take-home pay to spend, let alone to save or invest – in the past year, average wages have improved by just 1.3 percent while prices have increased by 3.3 percent. “Average hourly earnings have risen at just a 1.9% annual rate since the job market started improving notably last August. Meanwhile, the consumer-price index—driven by higher food and gasoline prices—has risen at a 3.3% annual pace. The average worker’s purchasing power, in other words, has declined even as more people have been finding jobs since August. Weekly earnings for production workers and nonsupervisors at service companies, adjusted for inflation, were down 2.6% in June from a year earlier. This slip might be transitory, and it wasn’t anywhere near the drops of 5% to 7.5% registered in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Still, it was the largest decline since 1991, and it is a shift from the late 1990s and even the 2001 recession, when real wages were increasing.” [Source: Wall Street Journal, 7/20/04]
Posted by Brendan Gilfillan, Research Intern at 10:30 AM
Economy – California Rhetoric: “I believe that when Americans have more take-home pay to spend, to save or invest, the whole economy grows, and someone is more likely to find a job.” [Source: President Bush’s remarks to B/C ’04 luncheon, 8/15/03]
Reality: Working families do not have more take-home pay to spend, let alone to save or invest – in the past year, average wages have improved by just 1.3 percent while prices have increased by 3.3 percent. “Average hourly earnings have risen at just a 1.9% annual rate since the job market started improving notably last August. Meanwhile, the consumer-price index—driven by higher food and gasoline prices—has risen at a 3.3% annual pace. The average worker’s purchasing power, in other words, has declined even as more people have been finding jobs since August. Weekly earnings for production workers and nonsupervisors at service companies, adjusted for inflation, were down 2.6% in June from a year earlier. This slip might be transitory, and it wasn’t anywhere near the drops of 5% to 7.5% registered in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Still, it was the largest decline since 1991, and it is a shift from the late 1990s and even the 2001 recession, when real wages were increasing.” [Source: Wall Street Journal, 7/20/04]
Posted by Brendan Gilfillan, Research Intern at 10:30 AM
posted by BLONDIE at 11:41 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home