Hey, guess what? The Democrats plan to focus on jobs! (Via Ace of Spades) Stop me if you’ve heard this one before… what, you have?
A lot?
Are you sure?
- December 2009: “Entering an election year, Democrats sharpen focus on jobs” Unemployment rate: 10.0%.
- January 2010: “Obama to focus hard on economy after Democratic loss” Unemployment rate: 9.7%.
- February 2010: “Democrats Seek to Push Ahead $15 Billion Jobs Bill, With More Steps to Come” Unemployment rate: 9.7%.
- March 2010: “Jobs Bill Signed Into Law by Obama” The first of
many… err, one? Unemployment rate: Unemployment rate: 9.7%. - April 2010: “Obama election-year jobs agenda stalls in Congress.” Unemployment rate: 9.9%.
- May 2010: “The American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010.” Remember this when you hit the second July 2010 entry. Unemployment rate: 9.7%.
- June 2010: “Obama Urges Quick Vote to Spur Jobs” Unemployment rate: 9.5%.
- July 2010: “Harry Reid stresses job-based agenda” Unemployment rate: 9.5%.
- July 2010: “President Obama signs Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2010 into law.” Yes, that’s the same thing as the May entry. Apparently, extending unemployment benefits counts as job creation. Also, remember this when you see the unemployment rate in May 2011. Unemployment rate: 9.5% (obviously).
- August 2010: “Obama Calls for ‘Full-Scale Attack’ to Revive Struggling Economy” Unemployment rate: 9.6%.
- September 2010: “Senators Urge Reid to Focus on Jobs, Adjourn Early” …Yes, that one’s unkind of both me and the Nevada GOP, but it was too funny to pass up. Unemployment rate: 9.6%.
- October 2010: “Obama to focus on jobs, economy on India visit.” This, a month after the Democrats failed to get an outsourcing bill past their then-59/41 majority. Unemployment rate: 9.7%.
- November 2010: “Reid: Jobs Are Priority #1 For Democrats” Unemployment rate: 9.8%.
- December 2010: “Obama & Labor Unions Meet to Plan Job Creation.” Based on this RedState report; Jim was as cynical about the likelihood of that happening as we were. Unemployment rate: 9.4%.
- January 2011: “Obama Address to Focus on Jobs, Cutting Deficit, Unity.” Unemployment rate: 9.0%.
- February 2011: “Jobs Message to Go Home With House Democrats” Unemployment rate: 8.9%.
- March 2011: “Democrats’ central message on jobs might not be enough” Unemployment rate: 8.8%.
- April 2011: “Democrat rips Obama for not focusing more on jobs.” Unemployment rate: 9.0%.
- May 2011: “Dems target unemployment benefits bill” Unemployment rate: 9.1%. Yeah, that was some real impressive job creation that came from paying people to not work for longer, there. And would it be mean of me to remind people that we were promised by the Obama administration to be between 6 and 7% unemployment at this point? …Yes, it would probably be mean of me.
- June 2011: “Obama Announces ‘All-Hands-On-Deck Strategy’ To Boost Private Sector Hiring” As I put it at the time: “Now watch this drive.” Unemployment rate: 9.2%.
- July 2011: “Democrats Focus on Jobs, Continue to Urge GOP to Work Together On Balanced Agreement to Pay America’s Bills, Reduce Deficit.” You dirty terrorists, you. Also: we’re all waiting for the July numbers on Friday: who wants to bet that they’re going to be any better than June’s?
- August: 2011: The Democrats plan to focus on jobs!
(Note: all unemployment rate numbers are from here and here).
Well. I guess that you were. I suppose that this commentary from Joe Biden back in October 2008…
…says it all, really.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
