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OPINION

With Numbers Like These, No Wonder Harry Reid's Lying

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.
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Unemployment claims came out, and WOW!

So even though our economy is down, it's still up. Or we’re up, but still down. Whatever… it’s all good, because your neighbor pays.

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And it’s another example of the stupid math liberals use to mask reality.

The unexciting nature of the newest unemployment claims is papering over all of the downward revisions that we are seeing in other areas of the economy.

For new readers the sentence above is an example of a device I employ now and again called “sarcasm.”

“Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 26,000 to a seasonally adjusted 323,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday,” reports Reuters. “That was the lowest level since the end of November and the drop more than unwound the prior week's rise.”

I’m surprised they didn’t blame the unusually low number of new claims on the weather.

After all, I’m thinking slackers are more likely to find themselves in the unemployment line, thus they’d be less likely to go out in the cold first and then wait in the unemployment line.

Click here to listen to Ransom Notes Radio live or for archives of previous shows.

Whatever the number “unwound,” the number doesn’t make up for the huge downward revision to private sector job creation estimates that came out this week.

Previously January job creation, estimated at 175,000 jobs, was subsequently revised downward to 127,000, an overestimation of about 38 percent.

And February’s reports look positively balmy now in comparison.

“Businesses added 139,000 jobs in February private payroll processor ADP said Wednesday,” reports USAToday, “adding to concerns that the labor market continued to struggle last month amid extreme winter weather.”

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So, because of the downward revisions to previous over generous guesstimates for January the Associated Press was still able to write that a “private survey shows that U.S. companies added slightly more jobs in February than in the previous month.”

So even though we are down, we’re still up.

This is the logical conclusion when we call taxes “revenues,” and seek to “grow” the economy by taxing and welfare spending.

All you have to do now is overestimate your initial estimate, trumpet that number, cut your estimate later, and then trumpet the new overestimation to make sure everything looks like a runaway freight train, disgiused as a trainwreck.

And if that sounds familiar, it's because it is.

This is that same kind of advance math functions that they’ve used to make sure that “Affordable” healthcare now costs U.S. taxpayers $27,000 for every Hawaiian enrollee.

But it’s OK, because someone else is paying.

And behind all of these “great” numbers are real people who can’t find a job, or lost a job, or are making less than they used to because of some stupid math game that liberals like must play to make their alternate reality work.

And despite what Democrat Harry Reid says, people aren’t lying about the hurt they’re under.

“Imagine this: Your business has 6 dedicated employees, who have worked for you between 9 to 12 years,” writes one Ransom Notes listener about Obamacare, “hardly ever missing a day. Family plan health care ran between $1000.00, to $1200.00 per month, per man. Affordable at this point. Estimated payroll, monthly [was] 36600.00, give or take a grand or two depending on hours worked each week. In 9 months, the premium doubled. I have had to 50/50 the plan, they pay half, I pay half, just so I could keep my men. Imagine paying $ 2400.00 per month, for 12 months, and never going to the doctor’s office.”

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Or how about this one: “I lost an excellent health care plan when Blue Cross canceled it due to Obamacare,” reports another reader. “The replacement plan they offered cost $9,000/year more which I could not afford, so I have a lesser quality plan and for the first time ever a $5,700 deductible for each member of my family.”

Wow! That’s some affordability.

That is if up is still down, and your neighbor pays.

And with numbers like that, no wonder Reid’s lying.

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