Drive-Bys Gobsmacked by Blockbuster Jobs Report

RUSH: The media today, depending on where you tuned in, was either having orgasms or panic attacks over the economic news. It was a shock. The Drive-By Media cannot believe it. The Drive-By Media thought that the bottom was gonna come out of the economy because of the shutdown. They had all their experts telling them that we were gonna lose jobs, the economy was gonna have zero growth. Remember them reporting all of that crap? And I’m sorry to use the term, folks, but it’s exactly what mainstream media reports, is crap. That because 800,000 federal workers were out of work for a month, the U.S. economy was gonna come to a screeching halt.

Not even close! The U.S. economy grew, created 304,000 jobs versus the 175,000 that were expected. The significant percentage of them were jobs in construction that are paying close to 80 to $90,000 a year. The retail sector was one of the lowest sectors where new jobs are created, and those are, you know, 12 to $14 an hour jobs. It was fabulous everywhere and the shutdown had practically no impact. Manufacturing Unexpectedly Surges

Let’s go to the audio sound bites and listen. It’s CNN’s Christine Romans. We’re starting at the top at number 1. These people were, I mean, they were depressed and despondent today, gobsmacked by these numbers …

ROMANS: It’s a big, strong number. It’s a number I think the White House is really gonna like. And it shows you that hundred months, I think, is really important here because this has been a long, steady job market recovery.

RUSH: So next is Poppy Harlow …

HARLOW: The president gets briefed on these the day before.

ROMANS: Right.

HARLOW: So he would have known about this —

ROMANS: Yes!

HARLOW: — yesterday! And he was very confident in that interview with the New York Times —

SCIUTTO: Yep.

HARLOW: — last night. And walking out of the China trade talks. I suppose this really helps the U.S. in the China trade talks. Their economy gets worse; ours gets better.

SCIUTTO: Mmmm!

RUSH: Poppy Harlow, they’re upset that Trump knew about this yesterday and that’s why he was in a good mood. … They were hoping for devastating economic news on the jobs front because, to them, when 800,000 federal workers don’t get paid, why, that does mean the economy doesn’t churn, doesn’t move. Those 800,000 government workers — no offense intended — produce zilch.

RUSH: Let me share with you some of the news headlines that were out in recent days predicting the jobs numbers today. Yesterday in the New York Times, January 31st: “Why This Jobs Report Will be a Mess.” CNN, January 10th: “How the January Jobs Report Could Be Shaped by the Shutdown.” Fox News, January 3rd: “Partial Government Shutdown Could Hurt January Jobs Numbers.” MarketWatch, January 31st: “How the Government Shutdown Had Impact the Jobs Report.” It was all negative news.

New York Times, January 28th: “Government Shutdown Will Cost U.S. Economy $11 Billion.” New York Magazine, January 24th: “Trump Officials Just Don’t Get Why Shutdown Hurts Economy.” TIME magazine January 23rd, “The Government Shutdown Is Going to Hurt the Wider Economy.” CBS News January 21st, “Shutdown’s Damage to Economy Could Exceed $5.7 Billion Cost of Trump’s Border Wall.” Barron’s, January 16th: “How the Government Shutdown Will Hurt the Economy.”

Vanity Fair, well-known economics journal, January 26th: “The White House Just Realized the Shutdown Is Hurting the Economy.” Washington Post, January 15th: “The Shutdown Threatens the Promise of Government Jobs and a Way of Life.” PMSNBC January 15th: “White House Now Expects the Shutdown to Hurt the Economy Even More.” Fortune magazine January 11th: “Long-Term Shutdown Will Hurt the Economy.” USA Today January 2nd: “Government Shutdown: How it Could Hurt the Economy.”

So you see virtually everywhere, including at Fox News, the pessimism was out of control.

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