Who's running this ship?

The Economic Policy Institute, in an article describing Bush's backpedaling on his recent economic report (and if there be any doubt, it was called "The President's Report" and was signed by him, and was created by the President's Council of Economic Advisers) predicting a huge increase in jobs during 2004, points out that even the pundits are wrong about the import of that report. It doesn't say that there will be an increase in jobs of 2.6 million this year; it predicts an even greater increase. As the Institute points out,

"On page 98 of the Economic Report of the President for 2004 that was released on February 9, the CEA predicts that non-farm payroll employment will average 132.7 million in 2004, reflecting a 2.6 million increase in jobs over its estimated average of 130.1 million in 2003.

"There has been substantial confusion concerning this issue, with many analysts and stories incorrectly suggesting that the CEA projects a total of 2.6 million jobs to be created this year. In effect, these reports are stating that the CEA has predicted there will be 132.7 million jobs at the end of 2004 when, in fact, the CEA has predicted that the average number of jobs for all of 2004 will be 132.7 million. To reach this average figure, there will have to be many more jobs than 132.7 million in December 2004, as there are 2.5 million fewer jobs than that right now."

According to EPI's calculations, to meet that goal Bush will have to create 5 million new jobs in 2004, or an average of 460,000 per month. No wonder he backpedaled. That's in impossible goal, especially since during the first month the job growth was a disappointing 112,000.

Makes you wonder if those folks in the White House have any idea how to run this entity called the United States.