Thomas Daschle: “last Friday we were presented with the latest report on the creation of new jobs in our economy. The administration…”

“last Friday we were presented with the latest report on the creation of new jobs in our economy. The administration predicted about 200,000. In February, unfortunately, we only created 21,000--180,000 short of what the administration predicted. If you don't count the increases in Government payroll, there was actually no job growth whatsoever in the entire year of 2003. Unfortunately, that could also be said of 2002, and 2001. The administration's economic forecasts appear to be little more than wishful thinking. A chart appeared in the New York Times yesterday that lays out very graphically how inaccurate the job predictions have been. In his column yesterday, Paul Krugman wrote about this unfortunate miscalculation in the prediction of jobs. His most graphic illustration of this miscalculation is entitled ``Promises, Promises.'' It is a chart. It is easy to understand. The administration predicted in 2002 the creation of 138 million jobs. Then in 2003 they corrected that prediction. They said it isn't going to be 138 million; it will be 135 million. In 2004, they said it isn't going to be 138 million, it isn't going to be 135 million, now it's going to be 132 million. Now we find out, in 2004, it wasn't 138, 135, or 132 million; it was 130 million jobs, which means they were 8 million jobs off the mark in predicting where the non-farm payroll employment rolls would be during the course of their term in office.”