One might get the impression that they have no choice but to pull numbers out of their collectes a**es. According to Stephanie Cutter, Obama's deputy campaign manager:
(Y)ou know, 27 months we’ve created 4.5 million private sector jobs. That’s more jobs than in the Bush recovery, in the Reagan recovery...
The problem with this claim is that it's, how we say, the opposite of the truth. The Reagan and Bush recoveries were both stronger. As James Pethokoukis
points out,
From the end of the recession in June 2009 through July 2012 — the
first 37 months of the Obama recovery — the U.S. economy has generated 2.7 million net new jobs. From the jobs low point in February 2010, the U.S. economy has generated 4 million net new jobs.
From the end of the 1981-82 recession through the end of of 1985 — the first 37 months of the Reagan recovery — the U.S.created 9.8 million net new jobs. And if you adjust for the larger U.S. population today, the comparable figure is more than 12 million jobs....
If you look at job growth during the George W. Bush Recovery the way
Cutter examines Obama’s job growth — from the low point forward, then
the first three years of the Bush recovery created 6.5 million jobs —
also better than Obama.
