White House retreats on predictions of new jobs this year

[Judi Lynn]

White House retreats on predictions of new jobs this year

TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent
Wednesday, February 18, 2004



(02-18) 09:31 PST WASHINGTON (AP) --

The White House backed away Wednesday from its own prediction that the economy will add 2.6 million new jobs before the end of this year, saying the forecast was the work of number-crunchers and that President Bush was not a statistician.

Bush, himself, stopped short of echoing the prediction.

"I think the economy's growing, and I think it's going to get stronger," said Bush, the nation's first MBA president. He said he was pleased that 366,000 new jobs have been added since August. "But I'm mindful there are still people looking for work, and we've got to continue building on the progress we've made so far."

The administration's refusal to back its own jobs estimate brought criticism from John Kerry, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination.
(snip/...)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/02/18/financial1059EST0076.DTL

[Moderator]

1. dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=370890