You have to watch out for that Global Warming. Via the NWS:
However, colder air began to wrap into northern Michigan by 3 and 4 am, with snow becoming more dominant in the higher terrain of northern lower Michigan. Towards daybreak, nearly all areas at least saw a few snowflakes, although the best snow accumulations remained in the higher terrain. Here is a map of snowfall accumlulations from the morning of May 8th
Snowfall on May 8th
Democrats seized control of Congress during the 2006 election and were sworn in January, 2007.
Graph is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (the vertical axis divisions are in 5 million job increments)- click for larger view
By mid 2007, the job market reached its peak and today, the job market is lower than in 2003 when Democrats were calling the economy the worst since the Great depression.
Since the current recession ‘officially’ started, the labor market has lost 8.2 million jobs.
It is interesting how the two time periods are treated. Today, every new job is met with tremendous fanfare. Via CNN:
President Barack Obama called the increase in jobs last month “very encouraging,” Friday saying the numbers are “particularly heartening” in light of conditions last year when the economy was in “free fall.”
A government report Friday said the economy added 290,000 jobs in April, up from a revised 230,000 jobs added in March.
“This is the largest monthly increase in four years and we created 121,000 more jobs in February and March than previously estimated. Which means we’ve now seen job growth for four months in a row,” Obama said.
While It is good news that some people are finding work, keep in mind that 121,000 jobs is half of the .2 in the 8.2 million jobs lost number.
In 2003, when George W. Bush was being compared to Herbert Hoover, the left was sneering at adding 1.4 million jobs over an 18 month window:
The good news for Bush is that with a base of 130 million jobs, adding 1.4 million in an 18-month period isn’t out of the ordinary. In fact, 1.4 million jobs would still be below average: Over the past 84 years, the economy typically adds nearly 2 million jobs every 18 months.
If you break out the calculator and using the 2 million jobs added over 18 month bogey, the numbers work out to 111,111 jobs / month added.
Per the 2003 standard, 121,000 jobs added in February is nothing. Furthermore, if we are to evaluate the Democrats job creation performance, we need to look over an 18 month window and those numbers are not pleasant.
With government spending out of control and showing no signs of slowing down, economic growth and job creation is going to be anemic at best.
The worst part about our economic situations is that it is not surprising to anyone who has been paying attention:
Just wait until ObamaCare kicks in and siphons even more money from the private sector.
The progressives have been proposing the same things for decades.
From Jimmy Carter’s “Crisis of Confidence” Speech, July 15th 1979:
Point three: To give us energy security, I am asking for the most massive peacetime commitment of funds and resources in our nation’s history to develop America’s own alternative sources of fuel — from coal, from oil shale, from plant products for gasohol, from unconventional gas, from the sun.
I propose the creation of an energy security corporation to lead this effort to replace 2-1/2 million barrels of imported oil per day by 1990. The corporation I will issue up to $5 billion in energy bonds, and I especially want them to be in small denominations so that average Americans can invest directly in America’s energy security.
And 30 years later, they are proposing the same things. Obama’s speech to Congress February 24th, 2009:
But to truly transform our economy, to protect our security and save our planet from the ravages of climate change, we need to ultimately make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy.
So I ask this Congress to send me legislation that places a market-based cap on carbon pollution and drives the production of more renewable energy in America. That’s what we need.
And to support — to support that innovation, we will invest $15 billion a year to develop technologies like wind power and solar power, advanced biofuels, clean coal, and more efficient cars and trucks built right here in America.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.