What's the current unemployment rate Mr.President?

by MaxEntropy_Man Thu Jan 26, 2017 8:51 am

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2017/01/23/what_trump_s_spokesman_dodge_a_question_about_the_unemployment_rate.html

On Monday, during Trump Press Secretary Sean Spicer's first daily briefing with the White House press corps, NPR's Mara Liasson asked a very reasonable question: What is the unemployment rate? This should have merited a simple response. Instead, what ensued was a nearly three-minute mamba in which Spicer never actually answered the query. Here's how it started off:
Liasson: Just really simple. What is the average national unemployment rate?
Spicer: What’s the average?
Liasson: What’s the overall unemployment rate?
Spicer: Are you talking about whether or not we include the full …
Liasson: I’m just asking you—
Spicer: I mean the Bureau of Labor Statistics puts it out—
Liasson: Do you accept their—
Spicer: No, no, it’s not a question of what I accept. There are ways you can put out full employment—[cross talk]—right, there’s a reason we put out several versions of that. One is the illustrative nature of how you count the unemployed, whether or not they’re long-term unemployed or whether or not they’re still seeking a job. But there’s a reason that you put out several of these statistics, so that economists can view them and decide—look at different landscapes on, on how to make economic policy.
Liasson: During the campaign at one point—Trump at one point said it was 42 percent. I just want to get clear on where we’re starting from.
Spicer: But again, part of it is his economic team is going to look at a multitude of economic statistics and drive economic policies.

by garam_kuta Thu Jan 26, 2017 9:39 am

true to his name, he spices every query with "blah blah blah ...our economy and our national security".

by MaxEntropy_Man Thu Jan 26, 2017 11:12 am

I don't know why only Mara Liasson thought of this question. Why aren't the Times and the Post focused on this question? This was one of the central assertions in Trump's argument of why he is the better candidate. He kept asserting that the unemployment rate is 42% during the campaign. So is that the baseline metric to measure future improvements? We need to know this right now.

by Hellsangel Thu Jan 26, 2017 11:37 am

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:I don't know why only Mara Liasson thought of this question. Why aren't the Times and the Post focused on this question? This was one of the central assertions in Trump's argument of why he is the better candidate. He kept asserting that the unemployment rate is 42% during the campaign. So is that the baseline metric to measure future improvements? We need to know this right now.

Go ahead and yell like Arnab, Il Professore.

by southindian Thu Jan 26, 2017 12:27 pm

Pathological liar got a liar Press Secretary

Only natural.

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What's the current unemployment rate Mr.President?

What's the current unemployment rate Mr.President?

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