Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

People are complicated. Love is not.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

I was promised a recession.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

“woke” is the new caravan.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

You are here: Home / Politics / Republican Stupidity / The Most Amusing Spin Ever

The Most Amusing Spin Ever

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Ed Morrisey with an instant classic:

In January, Barack Obama and Democrats insisted that the 5.7% annual growth rate in the fourth quarter of 2009 showed that their stimulus plan had set the American economy back on track for rapid growth and job creation. The administration needed a big number for 2010 to allay fears that unemployment would stagnate at the current high levels for the long term. Unfortunately, they didn’t get it, with the 3.2% annualized GDP rate for the first quarter of 2010 falling below analyst expectations…

Ed’s so full of shit he can spin 3.2% GDP growth as a bad thing without even breaking a sweat.

Simply hacktacular.

Reader Interactions

61Comments

  1. 1.

    r€nato

    Remember when Jonah Goldberg cited the tanking DJIA in March 2009 – mere weeks into Obama’s first term – as proof of the business community’s verdict on Obama’s fiscal/economic recovery policies?

    Heads they win, tails Obama loses. Now and forevermore, Peak Wingnut without end. Amen.

  2. 2.

    cleek

    the 3.2% annualized GDP rate for the first quarter

    with 25% of the votes in, it’s official, McCain is the next president of the US!

  4. 4.

    Captain Haddock

    That’s his job. I can’t fault him. My problem is with the idiots who eat his bullshit up (including far too many relatives).

  6. 6.

    cleek

    also, i once ran a 0:55 400m. that means i can run a mile in 3:40. and that means i hold the world record.

    bow to me.

  7. 7.

    Alex

    Ten seconds of Googling brought me to this. Ten seconds!

    Does this cut out the legs from the Democrats in their non-stop themes of complaint regarding the economy? It should, but it probably won’t. A growth rate of 3.3% is a good, solid number, one that shows real substance in the economy. It remains weak in some areas as does the dollar, but fundamentally strong.

  8. 8.

    slag

    @Captain Haddock:

    That’s his job. I can’t fault him.

    That’s mighty generous of you. I fault lots of people who lie, cheat, or steal for a living. But then, I don’t believe in a totally free market either.

  9. 9.

    El Cid

    If Sarah Palin had been elected Commander In Chief of the DC National Guard & Pawn, GDP growth would be like, a brazillion percent or whatever, also, too, and it would be in Real America, not with those fat cats in the Eastern Establishment.

  10. 10.

    funluvn

    A wise man once said that the wingnuts are so predictable that we can now pre-mock them. It is so true.

  14. 14.

    Mark S.

    And what is the lesson for today, children?

    We will not see the kind of growth necessary to put people back to work until the government stops sending pricing signals of higher taxes and more burdensome regulation regimes. Capital will not flow back into the market under the conditions set by the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress over the last fifteen months. Instead, it will most likely flow overseas, in markets more friendly to capital investment, where the nation’s executive doesn’t offer off-the-cuff remarks about people making too much money.

    Tax cuts and deregulation solve everything!

  17. 17.

    Joshua Norton

    What do you get when you add an overwhelming absence of intelligence to an overblown sense of importance? Wingnut porn.

    Or when they’re gathered in a large group it would be called “White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner”.

  19. 19.

    Mudge

    They just can’t seem to realize that keeping the economy from falling into the pit and rapid growth are separate things. The stimulus stopped the plunge. Many analysts said the stimulus was far too small, had more tax cuts than needed and had far less aid to states than needed.

    But everyone’s a deficit hawk now. A pity.

  23. 23.

    Chat Noir

    In January, Barack Obama and Democrats insisted that the 5.7% annual growth rate in the fourth quarter of 2009 showed that their stimulus plan had set the American economy back on track for rapid growth and job creation.

    I don’t think Obama or the Democrats have been anything other than cautious with regards to signs of economic improvement. They know we’re still in a deep hole, especially with regards to unemployment. As Obama’s said before, we didn’t get in this pickle overnight and it’s going to take some time for things to recover.

  24. 24.

    EconWatcher

    Hate to say it, but that growth rate is not going to get unemployment down far enough to avoid a slaughter this November. Before I get tarred as an Ed Morrissey shill, let me say I think O may have saved us from version 2.0 of the Great Depression with the stimulus (the jury is still out–we have to watch Europe), and our current plight is W’s fault.

    But given how far we fell, 3.2% really isn’t that great for this stage of the recovery. Recessions after asset bubbles just suck.

  25. 25.

    Paul L.

    I remember under Bush Administration GDP growth got revised upwards.
    Under the Obama Regime, GDP growth get revised downward.
    Funny how that works.

    John’s so full of shit he can spin 2.5% downward correction in GDP growth as a good thing without even breaking a sweat.
    How much of the 3.2% GDP growth dues to increased Government spending?

  27. 27.

    maus

    @Alex: Since the paper economy is so good, let’s keep firing people to keep our profits up. Stupid Democrats, they have no idea how good they have it.

  28. 28.

    AnotherBruce

    @Alex:

    But Alex, with all due respect, a 3.3% growth rate is higher than a 3.2% growth rate, case closed.

  30. 30.

    Paul L.

    @Alex:
    About your Hot Air link for 3.3% GDP growth in Q2 2008
    Which is still considered to occur during the Bush Recession.

    the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the nonprofit group which officially marks the birth and death of economic downturns, announced that the Bush Recession which commenced in December 2007 isn’t over, at least not yet.

  31. 31.

    Dave

    @Paul L.:

    In Bush’s last two+ years (2nd Quarter 2006-1st Quarter 2009) revised GDP beat 3.2% exactly once, 3.6% in the third quarter of 2007. Bush never even sniffed a rate of 5.6% and routinely saw rates below 3 or in the negative.

    Oh, and the growth? From the actual BEA Report:

    The increase in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures (PCE), private inventory investment, exports, and nonresidential fixed investment that were partly offset by decreases in state and local government spending and in
    residential fixed investment. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased.

    Do GOP shills/Obama Haters ever actually read the docs?

  32. 32.

    kay

    @Paul L.:

    I remember under Bush Administration GDP growth got revised upwards.
    Under the Obama Regime, GDP growth get revised downward.
    Funny how that works.

    I remember they revised upward last quarter, Under the Obama Regime, but your misty-eyed memories of when Daddy was in charge are probably more reliable.

    “Fourth-quarter 2009 gross domestic product was revised upward to 5.9 percent from its initial reading of 5.7 percent, the government said moments ago. Quarterly GDP is always reported with an initial number, then, after more data comes in, a revision is reported.”

  33. 33.

    Nylund

    @Paul L.:

    The difference between 5.7 and 3.2 is indeed 2.5, but since one was for 2009Q4 and the other was for 2010Q1, this is not a revision. Are you referring to some other revision?

    But since we were seeing negative numbers for quite some time, positive numbers are good! Not only that 3.2% is actually a good number historically for a developed industrial nation.

    You usually only see numbers like +5 either immediately after a recession, or in developing nations.

    Yes, we need tremendous growth to recover all the jobs lost in the crisis, but that just goes to show how badly things got effed up. We basically have to grow like an Asian Tiger to get out of the mess caused by the last administration. The fact that a historically good number like 3.2% won’t be enough just shows just how far this country fell.

    Shorter wingnut:

    “You’re not cleaning up our mess quick enough!”

    That may be true, but it was a DAMN big mess. Just like the oil spill in the gulf. Drill Baby Drill.

  34. 34.

    D-Chance.

    Can’t pass up this Kinky Friedman quote… often disagree with his politic, but he was the right choice for Texas guv in the last election cycle, given the alternatives.

    And what was the governor (Texas governor Rick Perry) doing jogging in that remote, hilly area after the fashion of Sirhan Sirhan, party of one? He’d been living there, he said, since the governor’s mansion almost burned down several years ago in an unsolved arson fire. Many Texans have now come to believe that the fire was set by the ghosts of Davy Crockett and Sam Houston in an effort to get his ass out of there.

  37. 37.

    kay

    @General Egali Tarian Stuck:

    I don’t even follow this closely, and that was the lead on the commercial news radio in the car: consumer and corporate spending. I heard it probably ten times over 4 hours.

    Do the 20,000 Rush Limbaugh/Seam Hanitty stations break for news?

    Apparently not. How will we reach them? Christ.

    There could be an evacuation order or something. We’ll have to ask Rush to break in with a “bulletin”.

  38. 38.

    r€nato

    @Dave:

    Do GOP shills/Obama Haters ever actually read the docs?

    Facts lie. They have a well-known liberal bias, after all.

  39. 39.

    r€nato

    @EconWatcher: Oh, I agree. Until the jobs start coming back, people are still going to be unhappy. Things are much better than they were, but saying ‘things don’t suck as badly as they once did’ doesn’t cut the mustard if you’ve been out of work for months.

  41. 41.

    Uloborus

    @EconWatcher:
    Yeah, it’ll be awhile before jobs really recover. Not in time for November. HOWEVER, didn’t we have a discussion a while back about an article where some guy looked over the election statistics, and for elections stopping the jobs bleeding was almost as good as job growth? That the important thing was that people no longer felt that the economy was still sliding down into Hell?

    I’d like that to be true. Jobs are definitely the Achilles Heel of the Dems this year. We’ll have to pray that the Teabaggers will just work extra hard to make sure nobody BUT a Teabagger would ever vote Republican.

    They seem to be very enthusiastic about that task so far.

  42. 42.

    r€nato

    @Mudge: what really drives me nuts are the idiots who insist the stimulus was a huge waste, things would have gotten better on their own and it wasn’t necessary to do anything.

    That’s exactly like saying that the fire department wasn’t needed; your house fire would have extinguished itself in time.

  43. 43.

    Mnemosyne

    @Paul L.:

    Which is still considered to occur during the Bush Recession.

    I think Paul is trying to bring back that “mental recession” thing that the previous administration was trying to push — “There’s not a real recession — it’s all in your head! Pay no attention to those unemployment figures!”

  45. 45.

    kay

    @General Egali Tarian Stuck:

    It’s better here. The whole feel is different.
    I know this isn’t rigorous and mathematical, my “feelings” but economists have failed me, and they’ll have to re-earn my trust. Not likely!
    I’m going with anecdote. There’s only 9,000 people in this town, so it’s not that difficult. It’s my “sample”.

  46. 46.

    Colette

    @Alex:

    Ten seconds of Googling brought me to this.

    One clicky-unit of clicking brought me to this:

    That page is temporarily unavailable.

    Coincidence? I think not! Wingnutmatter-Antiwingnutmatter collision has imploded his site. (Well, we can hope, anyway.)

  49. 49.

    Maude

    There might be some empty slots opening up at BP soon.
    Maybe some people with sense will get the jobs.
    Nah.

  50. 50.

    Bullsmith

    The non-logic is spectacular. “They tried to say 5.7% was this huge positive sign, but that number makes 3.2% look smaller in comparison! “

  51. 51.

    HRT

    “Falling below analysts predictions,” which Ed goes on to note were 3.5%. Seems pretty close to analysts predictions to me.

  52. 52.

    Bill H

    Yes, 3.2% increase in GDP is fine, but new unemployment claims still at 480,000 does not exactly thrill me. We still seem to be in the endless “jobless recovery” mode that works for everybody except those who need to work for a living.

    Yeah, I know, I’m being an asshole.

  53. 53.

    S. cerevisiae

    BP is a dead co. walking, they might as well declare bankruptcy now. This will make the Exxon Valdez look like a quart of Valvoline.

  54. 54.

    Randy P

    @Bill H: No, just realistic. There have been some good numbers, some signs that EVENTUALLY we will crawl out of the employment hole. I heard good “new housing starts” numbers last month, which I think is supposed to be a pretty good sign, leading eventually to improvements in employment.

  55. 55.

    R. Johnston

    Given expected population and productivity growth, 3.2% GDP growth is just about enough to prevent unemployment from rising. In the current climate, that really isn’t all that good.

  56. 56.

    Comrade Sock Puppet of the Great Satan

    What Econowatcher and R.Johnston said. Looking at Okun’s law, this isn’t going to shift the unemployment rate by much. Especially as there is much shitcanning of state & local employees coming down the pipe.

    Too bad the administration & Reid didn’t use the same tactics as they used on FinReg to get through a bigger stimulus, instead of cutting a deal with President Snowe, or at least to shout loudly that we needed a much bigger stimulus than the one that passed.

  57. 57.

    Tunch

    John, update the post to h/t Alex for identifying this:

    Economy grew 3.3% in Q2
    Share
    posted at 10:10 am on August 28, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
    printer-friendly

    Phill Gramm may have worded his assertion in an impolitic manner, but the latest economic data proves him correct. The US economy grew at an annual rate of 3.3% in the second quarter, almost twice as much as first predicted. Exports led the way, followed by an increase in personal spending:

    Real gross domestic product — the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States — increased at an annual rate of 3.3 percent in the second quarter of 2008, (that is, from the first quarter to the second quarter), according to preliminary estimates released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the first quarter, real GDP increased 0.9 percent.

    The GDP estimates released today are based on more complete source data than were available for the advance estimates issued last month. In the advance estimates, the increase in real GDP was 1.9 percent (see “Revisions” on page 3). …

    The acceleration in real GDP growth in the second quarter primarily reflected a larger decrease in imports, an acceleration in exports, an acceleration in PCE, a smaller decrease in residential fixed investment, and an upturn in state and local government spending that were partly offset by a larger decrease in inventory investment.

    Does this cut out the legs from the Democrats in their non-stop themes of complaint regarding the economy? It should, but it probably won’t. A growth rate of 3.3% is a good, solid number, one that shows real substance in the economy. It remains weak in some areas as does the dollar, but fundamentally strong.

    The Democrats have tried to make the current economy as bad as the Depression, but in fact it hasn’t even gotten near the Clinton recession that began in his last year in office. They have been hammering themes of economic mismanagement, but the real weaknesses in the economy have bipartisan fingerprints all over them. Chris Dodd’s sweetheart deals with lenders while chairing the Banking Committee certainly looks very suspicious, as did Barack Obama’s own selection of VP vetter Jim Johnson, a major player in the credit-market failure while raking in millions in unreported income at Fannie Mae.

    In the end, the scare mongering may still have some resonance, as job growth is a lagging and not leading indicator of recovery. That tactic worked well for Bill Clinton in 1992 when George H. W. Bush couldn’t explain clearly enough that the recovery from the 1991 recession had already begun. In this case, John McCain and the GOP need to point out that Obama intends to attack the incentives for investment needed to continue the growth and create new jobs. They’ll have plenty of time to do that next week, while Democrats continue to insist that the sky is falling when clearly no disaster has occured.

    Update: Earlier, I mentioned that the numbers exceeded inflation, but real GDP already accounts for inflation. The 3.3% annual growth is above inflation already.

  58. 58.

    toujoursdan

    @Mark S.:

    And exactly which country has lower taxes with similar services, economic and political stability and infrastructure? Canada, Germany, Australia, Sweden, Japan, Korea? Nope. The U.S. is a country where most businesses don’t pay tax already and has some of lowest personal taxes of any developed country (and in our modern history).

    Where is that advanced, developed libertarian paradise?

  59. 59.

    Tunch

    Fuck me, I can’t block quote it right.

    I notice that in addition to being an absurd hack and painfully wrong about this crisis, Morrissey is also wrong about the “Clinton” recession, which actually began after Bush was elected.

  61. 61.

    Chris Murphy

    Mr. Cole, I’m afraid you are the one who is full of shit here. Morrisey is quite right to describe 3.2% growth as disappointing. It takes 3% annual growth just to keep up with population growth. To lower the unemployment rate by just 1% would require 5% growth for a full year. historically, except for the last jobless recovery under W. growth rates coming out of a recession are substantially in excess of 5%.
    Given the current unemployment rate of 10% (underemployment rate of 17%) growth rates of only 3.2% would leave us with appalling unemployment rates for more then a decade.
    Before accusing someone else of being a hack you really should make some effort to know what the hell you are talking about.

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