Thanks to Sam Stein at the Huffington Post for pointing out another example of how vile the Republican leadership can be. First, here’s a glowing press release about today’s report on last month’s job gains from the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Kevin Brady:
And here’s Brady’s release last year when the job gains were nearly the same:
Note: Later revisions brought the February 2016 number down from 242,000 to 237,000.
As explained in my coverage of today’s job report, during his campaign for the presidency, Donald Trump claimed the actual unemployment rate was 42 percent last year, and called the Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers a “hoax.” He adopted that bogus percentage from David Stockman, the supply side charlatan who served as Ronald Reagan’s budget director. The percentage was arrived at by counting as “unemployed” people who were retired, disabled, in school, or taking care of young children, the sick or aged instead of being part of the work force.
Trumpty Dumpty and Kevin Brady apparently have a mentor in this twisted approach to public discourse:
"When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less."
"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master— that's all."