Regarding Monday’s letter to the editor, “Bush’s claim requires closer look” by Carol Brocker, who claimed the increase in employment is all smoke and mirrors: I took her advice and looked closer. I found that manufacturing jobs are up by 91,000. Before you claim that this represents McDonald’s and Burger King jobs, these 91,000 new jobs are in the manufacturing of durable goods. I don’t care how long that hamburger sits in your stomach, it doesn’t qualify as a durable good. These are real manufacturing jobs. In fact, adjusting for inflation, manufacturing sales have remained stable for the last 30 years.
In August 2003 unemployment was 6 percent; it is now 5.4 percent. To those who say that the increase is in low-paying jobs, this increase in jobs is in every job category: management, services, sales, construction, production. Total non-agricultural jobs have risen 1.5 million since August 2003.
As to wasting the “surplus” (as another writer wrote), President Clinton eliminated 709,000 regular Army (active duty) personnel. He eliminated eight standing Army divisions, 2,000 combat aircraft, four aircraft carriers, 121 surface combat ships – including submarines and all the support needed to sustain these ships, including bases. It takes money to correct these mistakes. In other words, the “surplus” was created by weakening our ability to defend ourselves.
President Clinton left us with a recession made vastly worse by the attack on Sept. 11, 2001. These two events sent our economy into a tailspin. Critics of the president leave these facts out when talking about the economic problems of the past four years. The fact is, because of President Bush’s recovery program, we have a strong economy. Our unemployment is 5.4 percent. This was the same unemployment figure that existed when President Clinton ran for the second time. No one was running around wildly claiming “record job losses.”
Rich Knapton
Everett
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