RNC stumbles on meaning of 'improving'

[babylonsister]

Posted with permission.

http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/09/10621995-rnc-stumbles-on-meaning-of-improving

RNC stumbles on meaning of 'improving'
By Steve Benen
-
Fri Mar 9, 2012 9:33 AM EST


On the day I affectionately call "Jobs Day," the most important news comes at 8:30 a.m. eastern, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes its latest report. The other thing to look forward to, though, are the press releases issues at 8:35 a.m., when the various political players try to tell us what we should think of the latest jobs report.

The morning's strangest reaction comes by way of Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus:

"Today's jobs report is yet another reminder that far too many Americans are out of work, and the situation is clearly not improving."

I don't mean to sound picky, but the word "improving" generally means "getting better." Under the circumstances, to argue that the nation's jobs situation "is clearly not improving" is pretty silly.

The economy has added 734,000 jobs in the last three months, 1.2 million jobs in the last six months, and 3.4 million jobs over the last three years. The last year has been the best for job creation in the last five years, and December-January-February totals represent the best three-month span in six years. The U-6 unemployment number -- suddenly the only metric Fox News cares about -- has fallen to its lowest level in three years.

If the RNC wants to argue that the status quo isn't nearly good enough, I'd strongly agree. If Priebus issued a statement saying we still have a long way to go, I'd endorse the line enthusiastically.

But to look at a jobs picture that's clearly improving, and argue in print that it's "clearly not improving," gives the impression that the RNC is rooting against good news -- and that's generally not a good position for a political party to be in.

I'm not unsympathetic to the tricky situation Republicans find themselves in, but that doesn't excuse a press release like this one.

[dmallind]

1. A strangely familiar argument to all here though

Maybe I should resurrect my old sig line that said "'things are improving' and 'everything is perfect for every single person' do not have equal or interchangeable meanings", because any statement of improvement here, as at the RNC, no matter how accurate, raises howls of protest that some people are still in dire straits as sure as clockwork. I have no idea why people feel one statement refutes the other, especially as the latter has always been true and will always be true even in the best economic situations, which is certainly not where we are now.

[zipplewrath]

2. The argument they're trying to make

I'm being generous here, let's make that clear right up front.

But, giving them WAY more benefit of the doubt than the GOP deserves, there is a point of view associated with what may be called "the pursuit of a local minimum". Basically it means that, yes the current trends are in the right direction, but that the best that can be achieved on a current path will be ultimately insufficient.

Basically you're walking up a 10 story building, but you need to be 15 stories up. Your trends are good as you go by the 5th floor, but you'll never get to where you need to be.

Again, being generous, the GOP point of view is that yes we're seeing a decline in unemployment, but we'll never get to anything approaching "full employment". Furthemore, it is a decrease that is being accomplished predominately by "under employing" alot of people.

There is some truth to what they say, but let's also be honest, nothing they would do would improve the situation. And really, they'd also have to make the case that what we ARE doing in the short term to improve the situation will somehow prevent us from making longer term changes to address those larger problems. Basically, we may be in the wrong stairwell, in the wrong building, but Bush and the GOP put us there, and we happen to know that when we get to the 10th floor, there's a walkway over to the larger building across the street. So we'll keep climbing if ya don't mind.

We haven't made the larger changes we'll need to truly reach the economic state we all know we need. But the changes we need to make, the GOP is fighting us tooth and nail. We do need a change to the tax codes, mostly to get rid of corporate welfare and programs that encourage jobs to be moved out of the country. We do need MORE banking reform, and freer credit markets. We need higher taxes on the wealthiest. We need better funding for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. We need to do something about the rising cost of health CARE.

But the friggin' GOP is the ONLY obstacle to ANY of that. (Well, if you include the Blue Dogs that work with the GOP to obstruct these things).

[yellowcanine]

3. Republican Party Makes Pig's Ear out of a Silk Purse.

Or something like that.

[yellowcanine]

4. Every silver lining has a cloud.

[HopeHoops]

5. Well, we're not quite back to where we were before Reagan took office, so I can see the point.

It's almost kinda sorta perhaps lookin' like improving, but things aren't as great as they were in the first 20 minutes of the Reagan administration.

We'll skip Clinton here because clearly all he wanted was a blow job.