Those are the number of NET private sector jobs created under Obama since his first day of office to today, according to ThinkProgress. Bush lost over a million over the same time period. This sort of argument, comparing the net job creation by Bush and Obama is the best economic argument I have used while talking to conservatives about economics. I'll post ThinkProgress's data followed by my argument.
Today's report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that the economy added 171,000 jobs last month, beating analysts' expectations. The private sector added 184,000 jobs (offset by some public sector losses), making this the 32nd consecutive month that the private sector has grown.
Overall, even accounting for the horrific month for jobs that was January 2009, the private sector has added 759,000 jobs overall under Obama. At this same point in the George W. Bush administration, October 2004, the private sector had lost more than 1 million jobs. This chart shows the difference:
Note: There is a great graphic illustrating these numbers that should go viral on Facebook, I think, but apparently Thinkprogress is not an approved site for loading into a Dkos diary, can anyone help me with that?
During the entirety of the Bush administration, the private sector ended up losing nearly 650,000 jobs.
The only reason that the unemployment rate did not spike during Bush's first term is that the public sector so derided by conservatives was rapidly adding jobs. If the public sector had added jobs at the historical pace under Obama, rather than hemorrhaging hundreds of thousands of jobs, the unemployment rate would be under 7 percent today.
I think it's important to note that Factcheck has
said that Bush created 1 million net jobs over 8 years. Remember that this is a count for ALL jobs including public sector jobs, and since Obama lost public sector jobs, he
created 580,000 net jobs since he took office according to Huffpo.
I think when talking to conservatives or independents- it is important to state that Obama has created 580,000 net total jobs and 759,000 net private sector jobs since the first day he become president. Remember that this number includes the economic crash that Obama inherited. The reason I include the recession months for Obama is that Republicans have a retort ready whenever we say that Obama inherited a recession: "Stop blaming Bush". My response is "fine. But Obama is STILL better". And you know what? Most Americans agree that Obama inherited the recession. But when the Democrat concedes that point and then goes on to win ANYWAY, that is seriously embarrassing for the Republican. It shows that we don't even need to rely on that talking point to win on the economy.
So, even if you blame Obama for the 750,000 jobs a month we were losing the day Obama walked into office, Obama still created 759,000 private sector jobs. Bush, by comparison, lost over a million private sector jobs in his first term. So this whole debateisn't about who is the perfect president. This is an argument of who will make the BETTER president. And by any standard Obama is clearly better than the last Republican President, even when you give Republicans the benefit and blame the recession Obama inherited on Obama. Insanity means repeating the same thing twice and expecting a different result. So why would we repeat the economic crash with a republican president, when we are guaranteed a slow but steady economic recovery under Obama?
And if they pivot to trying to talk about all employment including public sector employment (which is a better numbers argument for Republicans to make)- I would argue that the fundamental principle of the Republican party is to expand the private sector while shrinking Big Government. And now you are arguing for exactly the opposite? Isn't it a good thing according to YOUR OWN VALUES that we lose public sector jobs and gain private sector jobs rather than the other way around?
That usually silences them.