In Barack Obama’s last weekly address before the November election, he resorted to his usual chicanery, this time with an emphasis on the War on Women. Obama started by claiming that over the past 55 months, “Our businesses have added 10.3 million new jobs.”
- “Our businesses?” Since when did the creator of the infamous line “You didn’t build that,” have the right to call them “Our businesses?”
- “Added 10.3 million new jobs?” It is technically true that 10.3 million jobs have been added to the economy since its low ebb in 2009. But as Forbes stated in September:
More than five years into the tepid recovery, labor-force participation remains at its lowest level since 1978. Don’t blame waves of retirement for that fact: the Census Bureau reported that, from 2005 to 2010, older Americans actually became more likely to be employed. The percentage of 65-69 year-olds remaining in the workforce jumped from 26 percent to 32 percent over a ten-year-period ending in 2012. Among those 70-74 the jump was even more startling: from 14 percent to 19.5 percent. Meanwhile workers in the prime of their lives have simply left the playing field.
But the great economist wasn’t through, claiming, “For the first time in six years, the unemployment rate is below 6 percent.” Again, labor participation rate matters. And those six years to which our illustrious job-creating president refers were under the stewardship of… some terrible president named Barack Obama. In the first 93 months of George W. Bush’s presidency, the unemployment rate was under 6% 88 times; and in the other months, unemployment registered at 6.0, 6.1, 6.3, 6.2, and 6.1 in early 2003.
Ah, but then Obama had to shift to the already beaten-to-death meme for 2016: the War on Women. He blustered, “Women deserve fair pay. Even though it’s 2014, there are women still earning less than men for doing the same work. We don’t have second-class citizens in this country–we shouldn’t in the workplace either. So let’s make sure women earn equal pay for equal work and have a fair shot at success.”
But, but, wait! Didn’t Obama’s own Bureau of Labor statistics admit that single women who have never married earned 96% of men’s earnings in 2012? Marriage and having children just might have something to do with the pay gap; mothers want more time with their children. Women pick different jobs with less risk than men. And in 147 out of 150 major cities, single women with no children in comparable jobs and time in the workplace earned 8% more than men, according to Time magazine.
Of course, Obama trotted out the tried-and-true Democratic Party technique of extrapolating from one incident to pretend there was a general trend, saying, “Even today, women can be fired for taking too many bathroom breaks.” There was that one incident back in 2012.
Uh-oh, Obama forgot to ratchet up the stakes–he hadn’t mentioned children yet…
There it is! “…in many states, sending your kid to daycare costs more than sending them to a public university. So let’s start demanding Pre-K for our kids.”
Why not? The government has been stifled from indoctrinating our three and four-year-olds for far too long. Now they, too, can learn that there are far more than two genders!
Finally, Obama worked in his sop to the unions: “…Congress hasn’t passed a minimum wage increase in seven years, it’s long past time that women deserve a raise. About 28 million workers would benefit from an increase in the minimum wage to ten dollars and ten cents an hour… let’s give America a raise.”
Whoopee! A raise! But where is that money coming from?
Hey, where’s my wallet?