Chris Matthews Stoops to New Low as Dow Makes an All-Time High

Those of us that study the economy and how it is reported by the drive-by media are constantly amazed by how those covering financial issues continually misrepresent statistics to advance their agenda. No finer recent example has occurred than on “The Chris Matthews Show” Sunday when the host bemoaned new highs set by the Dow Jones Industrial Average last week as not accurately reflecting what is going on in the economy.

In his final segment, Matthews actually had the nerve to state, “Eighty percent of the workforce finds their paycheck barely keeping up with inflation.” In reality, nothing could be further from the truth, as the Bureau of Labor Statistics just this past Wednesday released data indicating that the average American's real wage after adjusting for inflation has risen by 2.2 percent since September 2005 as reported by NewsBusters.

Matthews also referenced a recent Wall Street Journal poll suggesting: “a huge majority of Americans say the stock market’s new heights have had no effect on them.” Yet, Matthews conveniently ignored data in this same poll stating that the President’s approval rating concerning the job he’s doing on the economy rose to 44 percent, the highest rating he’s gotten since February 2005 as reported by NewsBusters. His statement also belied consumer confidence numbers that are now at the highest levels since before Hurricane Katrina hit.

Of course, providing economic data and statistics clearly wasn’t Matthews’ intention. Far from it, for what followed was a campaign speech directed at folks who buy into the press’s economic fallacies urging them to vote for Democrats in sixteen days: “You see their despair in what the Democrats are promising voters this year: an uptick in the minimum wage; a promise to leave Social Security alone; a new Medicare drugs deal, and; government protection of pensions.”

Matthews shamelessly continued his campaign ad: “You feel it in Democratic promises to use subpoena power: to probe no-bid government contracts to Halliburton, the giant corporation once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney; to punish the oil companies for price-gauging; to probe the secret meetings with the energy executives, and; to freeze Congress’s own pay until it raises the minimum wage.”

Matthews concluded:

The Democrats are saying, “We’re not all in this together. The bells ringing on Wall Street might be clanging for those at the top, but hardly for everyone.” The midterm election results will tell us if most voters agree.

How utterly disgraceful. What follows is a full transcript of this campaign speech.

Many of us cheer as the bell rings 12,000 on Wall Street. But we know there are millions for whom that bell doesn’t toll. In a new Wall Street Journal poll, a huge majority of Americans say the stock market’s new heights have had no effect on them. Eighty percent of the workforce finds their paycheck barely keeping up with inflation. These are the economic strugglers out there who worry not that they can’t get ahead, but that they can’t hold on. You see their despair in what the Democrats are promising voters this year: an uptick in the minimum wage; a promise to leave Social Security alone; a new Medicare drugs deal, and; government protection of pensions.

You feel it in Democratic promises to use subpoena power: to probe no-bid government contracts to Halliburton, the giant corporation once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney; to punish the oil companies for price-gauging; to probe the secret meetings with the energy executives, and; to freeze Congress’s own pay until it raises the minimum wage. It’s a far cry from the optimistic sixties when Jack Kennedy told us, “A rising tide lifts all boats.” These days the working women, who are their family’s economic lifelines, feel like they’re treading water.

The Democrats are saying “We’re not all in this together. The bells ringing on Wall Street might be clanging for those at the top, but hardly for everyone.” The midterm election results will tell us if most voters agree.