Financial analysts were expecting the economy to add as many as 247,000 jobs in July, while Bush promised many more than that due to the “success” of his tax politics. We didn’t even come close to either.
The nation’s payroll growth slowed dramatically in July with a paltry 32,000 jobs being added — a potentially troubling sign that the rough patch the economy hit in June was no aberration.
Remember, Bush insisted last year that if Congress passed his third sweeping tax cut proposal, the economy would create 300,000 jobs a month, every month, starting in July 2003. Out of those 13 months, the economy actually met Bush’s guarantee twice and has fallen short 11 times, including each of the last three months.
Bush is right; results do matter.
And, as Atrios noted, the already weak numbers from June were revised downwards, from 112,000 new jobs to 78,000. May’s numbers, which weren’t much better, were also revised downwards.
So, which corner have we turned?