Dick Cheney on JobsVice President of the United States under George W. Bush |
CHENEY: The data he’s using is old data. It’s from 2003. It doesn’t include any of the gains that we’ve made in the last years. We’ve added 1.7 million jobs to the economy.
FACT CHECK: Both Edwards and Cheney quoted selective and misleading figures about jobs. Cheney correctly noted that 1.7 million jobs have been added in the past year, since payroll employment bottomed out in August of last year. New employment figures are due on Friday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the last report before election day. It now appears certain that Bush and Cheney will end their term with payroll employment still below where it was when they took office, the first time that’s happened since the Hoover administration. The net loss in total employment is actually 913,000 as of August
CHENEY: There’s no better antidote to poverty than a good, well-paying job that allows somebody to take care of their own family. To do that, we have to make America the best place in the world to do business. We’ve got to deal effectively with tax policy. We’ve got to reduce the litigation costs that are built into our society. We’ve got to provide the adequate medical care and make certain that we can, in fact, create the opportunities that are vital to that process.
EDWARDS: 4 million more Americans have fallen into poverty during the Bush presidency. They’re for outsourcing jobs. Bush says over and over that the outsourcing of millions of American jobs is good. We’re against it. We want to get rid of tax cuts for companies sending jobs overseas. We want to balance this budget, get back to fiscal responsibility. And we want to invest in the creative, innovative jobs of the future.
Under the tax relief package that the President signed this past May, we raised the annual expense deduction for capital investments from $25,000 to $100,000 -- a sure way to promote investment in new equipment and software. We believe all of these policies have set the stage for sustained growth in our economy. A recent survey of small businesses shows rising optimism among owners, evidence of improving sales, and more plans to invest and hire new workers.