Bill Bennett: “a recent poll within the last couple of days had a fact I found truly extraordinary which I want to talk about. It says…”

“a recent poll within the last couple of days had a fact I found truly extraordinary which I want to talk about. It says a very large percentage--maybe even a majority--of the people of America believe we are still in a recession. I find that extraordinary because the evidence in every area is highly to the contrary. The economy, if you will, is firing on all cylinders. Let me repeat some of the statistics I have given here before. In the first quarter of this year, the economy grew at a 4.2 percent annual rate. Added to the growth in the 2 previous quarters, this means it has grown over 5 percent in the last 3 quarters, which is the best performance in 20 years. Some say, Where are the jobs? We may have gross domestic product growth, but we don't have any jobs, so we are still in a recession. How can we say that in view of the facts which are overwhelming? Within the last 8 months, we have increased 1.1 million jobs according to the payroll survey, and 1.3 million jobs according to the household survey. Every indication is the jobs are coming back, and they are coming back very strongly. In a recession, you have layoffs. When you have layoffs, you have people who apply for unemployment compensation. Those are jobless claims. The level of jobless claims is at its lowest level in 20 years. How can we be in a recession when the jobless claim level is so up? How can people come to this conclusion?”