MSNBC's Chris Matthews claimed Thursday that the unemployment rate is lower now than when Barack Obama took office.
Such was said during a contentious Hardball discussion with Republican Arizona Congressman Trent Franks (video follows with commentary):
"I think the unemployment rate, Congressman, is lower now than it was when he inherited it from President George W. Bush"
No, that's not even close to being true.
The unemployment rate when Barack Obama took the oath of office on January 20, 2009, was 7.8 percent. Today it's 8.5 percent.
But that's only part of the picture, for there were 133.6 million people on non-farm payrolls that month. Now that number is 131.9 million, a 1.7 million decline.
Must be nice to have such job security that you can continually make factual misstatements on national television and not have the slightest concern about they're being any consequences for your error.
How many industries other than journalism can you name where that's true?
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