Bob Herbert -- There's a Catch: Jobs (NY Times)

The (p)resident tells us the economy is accelerating, <snip> but don't hold your breath waiting for your standard of living to improve. Bush country is not a good environment for working families. <snip>

• The number of Americans living in poverty has increased by three million in the past two years.
• The median household income has fallen for the past two years.
• The number of dual-income families, particularly those with children under 18, has declined sharply.

The administration can spin its "recovery" any way it wants. But working families can't pay their bills with data about the gross domestic product. They need the income from steady employment. And when it comes to employment, the Bush administration has compiled the worst record since the Great Depression.

The jobs picture is far more harrowing than it is usually presented by the media. Despite modest wage increases for those who are working, the unemployment rate is 6.1 percent, which represents almost nine million people. Millions more have become discouraged and left the labor market. And <SNIP> according to government statistics, there are nearly 4.5 million people working part-time because they have been unable to find full-time work. In many cases, as the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas noted in a recent report, the part-time worker is "earning far less money than his or her background and experience warrant — i.e. a computer programmer working at a coffee shop."

Economists expect some modest job creation to occur over the next several months. But there's a "just in time for the election" quality to the current economic surge <SNIP>... Families are living very close to the edge economically. <SNIP> A cornerstone of post-Depression policy in this country has been a commitment to policies aimed at raising the standard of living of the poor and the middle class. That's over. When it comes to jobs, taxes, education and middle-class entitlement programs like Social Security, the message from the Bush administration couldn't be clearer: You're on your own.

More at http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/27/opinion/27HERB.html

As Herbert also points out, Leona Helmsley said that "Only the little people pay taxes"; the Bu$h crowd has turned that into national policy. The bottom line: the middle class & working class now pay almost all the taxes, they fight the wars, and they get nothing in return. So Bu$h & co. can give everything to the feckless Rethugnican rich.

We pay the freight, we make all the sacrifices, the rich get a free ride -- in splendor and at our expense.

should be the mantra for the 2004 Presidential election. There is no debating these facts, there isn't enough lipstick in the world to put on these particular pigs.

Agree, the job loss issue is a big one and affects a lot more people than the so-called political pros think.

It affects those who have lost their jobs and affects those who are afraid they'll lose their jobs. It affects those who have been able to find a new job for lower pay and/or fewer hours and affects those who have given up looking. That's a lot of angry and nervous voters.