And the "over-sampled Democrat" poll numbers still say RMoney is going to lose. (I hope he is still stupid enough to believe his own "don't bring me any bad news" poll numbers.) He lull himself and the voters into a false sense of security.
My guess would be that the "new benchmark" refers to the number of employed people finally surpassing the previous number of employed. Nearly 4 years after Obama was inaugurated the number of people employed in the Union is finally higher than the number that were employed the day he was sworn in.
The number of people who have stopped looking for work is another new benchmark that has been set during Obama's tenure, as is the new benchmark for the number of people on food stamps and how can we forget the new benchmark that was set with the number of people living at or below the poverty line.
Raw numbers, all by themselves, mean nothing without some form of context in which to place them. The oil industry may be earning a record number of dollars in profit, but that number, in and of itself, is valueless until it is placed into some sort of context. The taxes imposed by the PPACA legislation may indeed be the largest new tax in the history of the union when you are talking about only the number of dollars, but it too is valueless until placed into some sort of context.
Having surpassed the total number of people employed for the first time during his presidency is valueless as a number as well. It is the context that matters. The labor participation rate is lower today than it was at the bottom of the recession and that number continues to decline. In August of 2008 it was 66.1%, August of 2009 it was 65.4%, August of 2010 it was 64.7%, last year it was 64.1% and this year it is 63.5%. The labor participation rate puts the raw number of 200K more people employed today than in January of 2009 into context that can be examined, which the number all by itself simply can't do.
Democracy4Sale wrote: The president can give his recommendations to Congress... It's NOT a "budget"... Congress creates budgets... Spin it however you like.
Almost accurate. What the executive submits to Congress every year is a requested budget, not simply a recommendation. Spin however you'd like, that is the accurate description of the document that the president submits to Congress every year. Congress adopts a budget and creates legislation to appropriate the necessary funds from the US Treasury based on the budget they adopt. A budget is an estimate of future revenue and expenditures. The budget that the president submits to Congress may not be the final budget that is adopted, though it could be, but the document submitted by the president to Congress is indeed a budget.
still say RMoney is going to lose. (I hope he is still stupid enough to believe his own "don't bring me any bad news" poll numbers.) He lull himself and the voters into a false sense of security.
