Jack Welch, Former GE Head and Mathematics Denier Lies in the Wall Street Journal

The Standard of Truth Telling Takes Another Vicious Hit

When last week’s unemployment numbers were released and showed the unemployment rate falling to 7.8% Conservatives were aghast.  Could the Obama economic program be actually working?  That can’t be, especially this close to the election.  Something must be afoot.

Leading the charge that the numbers were falsified was former GE head Jack Welch.  He sent out a message strongly suggesting that the Obama campaign had cooked the books, has conspired with career government employees to make the unemployment rate lower than it actually was, just to help the President.  This nonsense was denounced not only by Democrats, but by Republicans who were familiar with the Labor Department and the professionals who provide unemployment data.

Mr. Welch has taken the criticism personally and the WSJ has turned over a large section of his opinion page to him.  He says this.

Jack Welch: I Was Right About That Strange Jobs Report

The economy would need to be growing at breakneck speed for unemployment to drop to 7.8% from 8.3% in the course of two months.

And here is what the highly offended Mr. Welch complained about.

Soviet Russia perhaps? Communist China? Nope, that would be the United States right now, when a person (like me, for instance) suggests that a certain government datum (like the September unemployment rate of 7.8%) doesn't make sense.

Uh no, Mr. Welch, that is not what you suggested.  You suggested, very strongly in fact, that the numbers were faked, that they had been deliberately corrupted in the name of political gain.  That is why people criticized and laughed at you.  By your own admission you had absolutely no evidence of your position.  In arguing that people attacked you because of your questioning the data as opposed to attacking you because you said the data was falsified you are engaging in the simple act of lying to try to salvage the shreds of what is left of your reputation.

Had Mr. Welch merely attributed the low jobs reports to the traditional statistical sampling error, no one would have questioned him.  Of course no one would have paid any attention to him either.

Notice the pattern here, with Mr. Welch and others on the Romney bandwagon.  Their entire positions on issues like government spending and taxes are without details and do not add up.  They state that American must simply take their word for what they say.  This arrogance and condescension pervades the wealthy Republicans who feel, despite their opposition to entitlements, that they are entitled to all of their wealth and entitled to credibility even when they have none.