If you’ve watched Ed Gillespie for any length of time, you know he lies like an old carpet – very comfortably. He also lies a LOT, as in just about every time his lips start moving. For instance, check out the video below, as Gillespie claims on the odious “Fox and Friends” that since Lt. Governor Ralph Northam “first got elected, we have shed 69,000 manufacturing jobs in Virginia.” That didn’t sound right to me either on the data itself or on the assessment of blame, so I checked the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to see what the actual, ya know, FACTS are. And the answer is…
- In November 2013, when Ralph Northam was elected Lt. Governor of Virginia, there were 230,500 manufacturing jobs in the Commonwealth. As of May 2017, there were 234,100 manufacturing jobs in Virginia, a GAIN of 3,600 manufacturing jobs since Ralph Northam was elected Lt. Governor (note: of course, we should look at when Northam assumed office, which was in January 2014, but apparently Gillespie is too dumb to understand this).
- So Ed Gillespie’s clearly a liar, and not a very bright one — that’s established. Still, just out of curiosity, I decided to go back further in the BLS numbers to see the bigger story. Not surprisingly, what happened was that Virginia – like pretty much every state – shed manufacturing jobs during the “Great Recession” that started in 2008 under President George W. Bush, for whom Ed Gillespie worked as Counselor.
- In December 2007, when the “Great Recession” began (also when Bush was president and Gillespie was his Counselor), Virginia had 272,100 manufacturing jobs. By the time Terry McAuliffe became governor of Virginia in January 2014, after four years of Gov. Bob McDonnell (note that Gillespie was McDonnell’s campaign chair), we had only 231,300 manufacturing jobs, a decline of more than 40,000 manufacturing jobs under Bush/Gillespie/McDonnell. Great job, guys!
- Also note that during Bob McDonnell’s administration (January 2010-December 2013), Virginia manufacturing jobs fell from 232,800 to 231,000, a decline of nearly 2,000 jobs.
- And now, since January 2014, when Terry McAuliffe became governor and Ralph Northam became Lt. Governor, Virginia has gained nearly 3,000 manufacturing jobs. So, bottom line, Gillespie is wrong on all counts. Unless, of course, he’s trying to blame Northam for Virginia’s loss of manufacturing jobs since 2007, when Northam was first elected to the State Senate. If so, that’s completely crazy, unless Gillespie’s going to start blaming individual State Senators (including from his own party) or Delegates or whatever for the national economy, state economy, etc.
- Of course, keep in mind that THIS is what Republicans do – screw things up badly, as Bush/Gillespie did with the U.S. economy, and then try to blame Democrats for Republican failings, even as Democrats worked diligently to clean up their mess! Amazing, but not surprising, as the GOP for years has been the party of “blame others, never take personal responsibility for anything.” And that, of course, describes corrupt slimeball “Enron Ed” Gillespie to a “t.”
- P.S. Gillespie also apparently has ZERO understanding of data, economics or of the Virginia Lt. Governor job…completely brain dead if this is what he really thinks. By Gillespie’s “reasoning,” for instance, I guess it was Republican Lt. Governor Bill Bolling’s fault that Virginia hemorrhaged manufacturing jobs while he was in office. Uhhhh….no.
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