Bush-whacked
The millions of Americans stuck against their will in low-wage, part-time jobs deserve serious attention from presidential candidates, not the cynical gotcha attack that Democrats have zinged at Jeb Bush. Meeting with editors of the Manchester, N.H., Union-Leader, Bush restated his goal of achieving 4% economic growth — almost double the current lackluster rate.
“We have to be a lot more productive,” the GOP front-runner said.
“Workforce participation has to rise from its all-time modern lows. It means that people need to work longer hours and, through their productivity, gain more income for their families. That’s the only way we are going to get out of this rut that we’re in.”
Bush had delivered a dead-on diagnosis of a central challenge facing the country, still yet to fully bounce back from the Great Recession.
Yet Democrats pounced on a mere six of his words — “People need to work longer hours” — to accuse Bush of calling American workers lazy.
“Easily one of the most out-of-touch comments we’ve heard so far this cycle,” huffed the Democratic National Committee.
“Anyone who believes Americans aren’t working hard enough hasn’t met enough American workers,” piled on a tweet from Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Spare us the disingenuous dudgeon. Fact: Just 63% of Americans have jobs or are actively seeking them — which is the lowest workforce participation rate since the late 1970s, and is still heading downward.
Fact: The ranks of those employed includes a whopping 6.8 million people who are stuck in part-time jobs — and the diminished paychecks that go with them — because they can’t find fulltime work. While the number is declining, it’s still 3 million higher than before the recession.
Bush was clearly referring to this lingering plague of underemployment when he spoke of “longer hours” — and his Democratic attackers just as clearly knew that.
They are playing one of the oldest games in American politics — wrenching an opponent’s words out of context to spin them as outrageous.
Bush’s economic platform — which emphasizes cutting taxes — is fair game for debate. But to grossly distort his well-justified concern about underemployment is to play voters for fools.