BUSH TO ALTER ECONOMIC STATS AGAIN

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-11-1999
BUSH TO ALTER ECONOMIC STATS AGAIN
46
Thu, 09-02-2004 - 2:41pm


Last week, the Census Bureau released statistics showing that for the first time in years, poverty had increased for three straight years, while the number of Americans without health care increased to a record level. But instead of changing its economic and health care policies, the Bush administration today is announcing plans to change the way the statistics are compiled. The move is just the latest in a series of actions by the White House to doctor or eliminate longstanding and nonpartisan economic data collection methods.

In a Bush administration press release yesterday, the Census Bureau said next week it "will announce a new economic indicator" as "an additional tool to better understand" the economy. The change in statistics is being directed by Bush political appointees and comes just 60 days from the election. It will be the first modification of Census data in 40 years.

This is not the first time the White House has tried to doctor or manipulate economic data that exposed President Bush's failed policies. In the face of serious job losses last year, the Associated Press reported "the Bush administration has dropped the government's monthly report on mass layoffs, which also had been eliminated when President Bush's father was in office." Similarly, Business Week reported that the White House this year "unilaterally changed the start date of the last recession to benefit Bush's reelection bid." For almost 75 years, the start and end dates of recessions have been set by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a private nonpartisan research group. But the Bush administration decided to toss aside the NBER, and simply declare that the recession started under President Clinton.

Sources:

1. "Census: Poverty up in 2003," The Olympian, 9/01/04, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=2254501&l=52819.

2. Census Bureau press release, 8/31/04.

3. "Monthly report on mass layoffs dropped," Shawnee News-Star, 1/05/03, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=2254501&l=52820.

4. "Inventing The 'Clinton Recession'," Business Week Online, 2/23/04, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=2254501&l=52821.

dablacksox


Cynic: a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.---Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-24-2004
Thu, 09-02-2004 - 2:47pm
Very interesting article!! I can't wait to see the debates on this thread!!!
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-11-1999
Thu, 09-02-2004 - 2:51pm
"I can't wait to see the debates on this thread!!!"

Oh, it will be the usual......"What did Kerry say 30 years ago?"

dablacksox


Cynic: a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.---Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-24-2004
Thu, 09-02-2004 - 3:07pm
Yeah!! Not that Bush had alot to say 30 years ago it seems. In one thread a while back, I read that someone said we should just give a person a break because of things that was said in the past. Bush receives so many breaks, someone is always making an excuse for him no matter what it is. But it seems the government does what is best for them and not necessarily what is best for us...

Hey by chance are you from Chicago?

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-02-2004
Thu, 09-02-2004 - 3:11pm
A very informative post that is hard to refute, though am sure there will be some within the Republican ranks who will give it a try. As the old adage says, figures can lie and liars can figure. This smoke and mirrors tactic on the part of those supporting the president is sadly just business as usual in the Bush Whitehouse.
iVillage Member
Registered: 09-02-2004
Thu, 09-02-2004 - 3:15pm
Hi Sondra...at least from my read of what he posted, do not see where the debate could lay as it seems very cut and dry to me, but then I could mistaken. It has been said a fool will debate his point even when he does not have one until the cows come home rather than admit that he is wrong. That might be a good phrase for Bush to consider for his Tombstone.
iVillage Member
Registered: 09-02-2004
Thu, 09-02-2004 - 3:19pm
Thirty years ago, Bush would have still been in his boozing it up, cocaine and wild sex days, so can imagine some of the things he would have been saying:

Bush "Hey Cheney, grab me a beer, and you want to do a line?"

Cheney "Not right now George...curious, would it bother you if our daughter grew up to be a lesbian?"

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-11-1999
Thu, 09-02-2004 - 3:23pm
"Hey by chance are you from Chicago?"

Yeah, the South Side. I knew who the Black Sox were long before any of the movies came out.

Black Sox is the name of my softball team....

dablacksox


Cynic: a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.---Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary.

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-02-2004
Thu, 09-02-2004 - 3:42pm
Well who cares what kerry said thirty years ago? I care about what he has to say today! At least we know that he is behind womens issues! and is pro choice and po-womens health care! Here are some of the amendments to legeslation that Bush is behind #1 Teaching abstinence only education ( know this is already going on in schools my friend is a health science teacher) No on condom use and no on other forms of birth control, condoms are not just for birth control but to prevent std's and hiv!#2 The unborn Victims of violance act, Anyone causing death or injury to a pregnant woman will be charged with a seperate offense for injuring a unborn child. And a new regulation enables the State Chliderns Health ins program to provide coverage for fetuses seperate from the mother. Giving fetuses rights puts your rights to choose in jepardy and the doctor who helps you!#3 Rep David Vitter ( R-LA ) wants to push through an amendment to shut down private health care clinics that receive public funds if the clinics offer abortion services. Even if these offer susidized medical care for women making $23,000. a year or less. Even thought these clinics use private funds for abortion services. they will lose all government money. forcing them to close!! Do you know that over a MILLION women in the US count on these clinics for health care? which will force alot of women to go without healthcare and also abortion services if they need it? Also the Gov re appointed to our FDA's Regproductive health drugs advisory committee a doctor who prescibers prayer for PMS and will not prescribe oral contaceptives to his unwed patients? What year is this? 1920? why do men get to choose what we do with our bodies as women? Do we really think another 4 years of Bush will be good for women? If you do then close your eyes and cast the vote for Bush, and be sure to tell your female friends and relatives that you helped Bush take away our rights as women! I know on November 2,2004 I will be voting for the man who believes that I am not a second class citizen and that I have the right to choose what I do with my body!
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-12-2001
Thu, 09-02-2004 - 4:36pm
I'll tell you this much ... whomever I cast my vote for, it will NOT be on the basis of abortion or other so-called "women's issues" that mean nothing to me.

Bev

girl in chair
Avatar for car_al
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Thu, 09-02-2004 - 4:38pm
More than likely!

But the economy is the usual reason for voter dissatisfaction and a jobless recovery reads as no recovery to most people.

C

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