Audio: As Weak Jobs Report Comes Out, Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA01) Tells Three Big Lies About the Economy in Just 16 Seconds

Among the delusional, alternative-reality, right-wing Republicans in Congress, Virginia has a few real doozies. One of those is Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA01), who is basically terrible on every issue, who votes with the Orange Dotard 92% of the time, and who frequently spews nonsense and hypocritical b.s.  So now, with new jobs numbers out this morning, Wittman just told a series of whoppers about the economy on right-wing talk radio. Here’s what Wittman claimed in 16 seconds of lying, and what the verifiable *facts* actually are.

• First, Wittman claimed “wage growth which is fantastic.” In fact, as the following graphic clearly demonstrates – and as Heidi Shierholz, former Chief Economist at the US Dept. of Labor, clearly explains – “From late 2017 through late 2018, it looked like wage growth was picking up. THAT ENDED. Wage growth is flat this year.” In other words, Trump inherited a strong Obama economy, poured massive tax cuts (which ballooned the deficit and debt) on top of it, and wage growth *might have* picked up a bit, temporarily. But now that the “sugar high” of the tax-cuts-for-the-1% have largely faded out? Yep, wage growth has settled back down. Yet Wittman claims wage growth’s “fantastic.” More like Wittman lives in a fantasticAL world, in which he lives in an “alternative facts”/right-wing media echo chamber.

A reminder: From late 2017 through late 2018, it looked like wage growth was picking up. THAT ENDED. Wage growth is flat this year. #JobsReport #WagesReport pic.twitter.com/pbTtviePCX

— Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz) September 6, 2019

• Next, Wittman asserted (falsely) that there’s a “record number of jobs being created.” That’s just wildly, demonstrably, verifiably a lie. In fact, as the following table shows, job growth during the last four months under President Obama was 191,000, compared to just 132,000 during the last four months under Trump. And again, note that this anemic jobs growth comes in SPITE OF the fact that Trump inherited a strong, structurally sound economy from President Obama. Which, of course, Trump is now in the process of f***ing up, just like he f***ed up everything else in his life.

Average Monthly Job Growth

Last four months under Obama: 191,000

Last four months under Trump: 132,000#JobsReporthttps://t.co/kVDu6AQb4n pic.twitter.com/29wcJB7ROF

— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) September 6, 2019

• Last but…ok, least, Wittman argued that “if you look at polling in people’s attitudes towards the economy, consumer confidence is at a record high.” In fact, consumer confidence just fell by the most in one month since 2012 (!), “to 89.8 in August from a previously reported 92.1 and 98.4 in July.” Great, eh? Also, a Quinnipiac University poll in late August found that, “For the first time since Mr. Trump won the presidency in 2016, more registered voters say the country’s economy is getting worse than say it’s getting better…37% say the economy is getting worse, compared with 31% who say it’s getting better and 30% who say it’s staying the same.” Yet in Wittman’s warped world, consumer confidence is supposedly “at a record high.”
• The bottom line is that Rob Wittman either has no clue what he’s talking about, or he *does* know the facts but chooses to spew out falsehoods anyway. Either way, VA01 voters definitely need to replace him in November 2020.