Why, you change the numbers, of course. The Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages is still being calculated, but the Walker campaign, er, administration released what appear to be more optimistic numbers than the traditional employment figures from the U.S. Labor Department a month ahead of schedule:
On the eve of the release of the latest official numbers on job creation -- or, in Wisconsin's sad case, job losses -- Walker suddenly announced he had found a new set of data that shows his policies are working. ... he did this one day before official numbers -- which unlike Walker's figures have been reviewed and verified for accuracy -- were to be released.The reasons for the difference are complicated and wonky -- you can wade through the economic explanations and charts here -- but the reasons for rushing the release of this more favorable set of numbers are obvious: they would otherwise come out after the June 5 recall election. The Walker campaign (and his superPAC supporters) had TV commercials produced and airing before the ink on the Department of Workforce Development release was dry.
Considering that the Walker campaign and the Obama reelection campaign share the same "Forward" slogan, the Cap Times editorial poses an interesting question: how would Mitt Romney and his Crossroads for Growth swiftboating pals respond if the Obama White House tried to sweeten their economic record with the same sort of fudgery?
No comments:
Post a Comment