Ron Paul says unemployment is 20%
(CNN) – A week after proposing his economic recovery plan, Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul said Sunday that the true unemployment rate in the United States is higher than the 9.1% estimated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
"I think the downturn in the economy occurred in the year 2000," Paul told CNN, adding that there have been no new jobs since then "and yet we've had a 30 million increase in population."
"Just go out and talk to the people - unemployment rate in the true numbers (is) over 20%, so there's been a depression," Paul said after an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press."
The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the number of unemployed Americans at 14 million.
Paul's campaign has proposed cutting $1 trillion from the budget in his first year in office if elected. His economic plan calls for lowering the corporate tax rate to 15%, an extension of all Bush-era tax cuts and an end to taxing personal savings.
"Let the people spend the money instead of the government," Paul said.
Paul also expressed his ideas about less government spending and his opposition to rival Herman Cain's 9-9-9 tax plan that proposes replacing the current tax system with a 9% income tax rate, a 9% corporate tax rate and a new 9% national sales tax.
When asked about Cain's plan, Paul said, "I think it would be devastating because it would be a brand new tax. It's a compromise between those who want a flat tax and a national sales tax."
Paul said he thinks getting rid of taxation is the answer to improving the economy.
"The money is out there, it's just that people are frightened and intimidated by all the regulations and they don't know what the future will bring," Paul said.
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When it comes to unemployment it’s been a tale of two recessions, with level of education playing an unprecedented role in whether you’ve been pink slipped or not. Getting a degree from "High Speed Universities" is the only solution
Ron Paul is suffering from conformation bias. He has decided what the right path should be and it does not matter what the facts show (or even if there are any facts to support his assertions).
Wikipedia – Confirmation bias is a tendency for people to favor information that confirms their preconceptions or hypotheses regardless of whether the information is true.
America needs a president that will look at facts and formulate a strategy regardless of their religious beliefs or some ultra-strict interpretation of the Constitution.
The six percent man is losing to a pizza chain owner. That has to hurt.
Ron Paul is the only intelligent candidate running and he has my vote.
In other words after 10+ years of the Bush GOP tax cuts, the country LOST jobs. Thanks for the statistics and quantifying what everyone has been trying to tell the GOP for years but they won't listen: IF TAX CUTS CREATE JOBS....WHERE ARE THEY??
Right on Ron Paul!!!! Mr.Paul runs and I will be the first voter to the ballots. Ron Paul is the only candidate with the nerve and history to prove it that could possibly make a break from the political monkey business as usual. If any of the corporate politicians are the only ones running Ill stay home. I wont vote for the better of two evils.
I don't know about the numbers and how Paul came up with 20% but I do have to admit that unemployment will only continue to rise. This has nothing to do with any administration or policy (dem or rep) but the fact that we are overpopulating ourselves. When we have technology that can make products which in the past would give 5 people jobs and now with that technology we only need 1, we produce more with less man power. Hence the never ending cycle of decline in manufacturing jobs and with no other "new" industries coming out that require additional man power to sustain the production lines (again technology replacing people) we will only continue to see unemployment rise as long as people cannot keep their legs together and only produce 2 children per family, not increasing our population yet still sustaining our current population to keep us able to compete with foreign markets.
Ron, please stay away from the white house. We really don't need you crashing what little economy we have by destroying every government job out there in some misguided attempt to reinstate the gold standard. Taxes are not what's keeping people under water on their mortgages, it's a labor market that's for some horrible reason competing with southeast asian slave states.
There is no sense of URGENCY from the GOP on jobs. It has been a YEAR since they ran on "job creation" and we still have nothing.
The topic was RE-ENERGIZED by the President in the August / Labor Day timeframe and here we sit, some 8 WEEKS LATER and Congress has still done NOTHING that to put people back to work.
Tax cuts & de-regulation only RAISE aftertax profits – they do LITTLE for job creation. Jobs are created when businesses can`t meet the DEMAND they have with their current staff.
And as far as suggesting that the Democrats make the business environment "uncertain"? , that`s not so. The truth is the Rebuplicans introduce the uncertainty by promising corporations that they will get them an EVEN BETTER DEAL at the expense of citizens and workers. If the GOP would stop pandering and put people first, they`d stop trying to assail the stable, level Democrat-inspired steady-state environment we have for business planning.
Republicans are the source of uncertainty, not Democrats.
Finally, the lag between these Republican so-called "pro-jobs agenda items" and the reality of hiring tells anyone who thinks about it that there is little, if any, connections between the two.
A downturn since 2000 really? So it just so happens that when a republican took control of the White House, the economy turned to crap. Well said Mr. Paul.
Ron Paul is right on many issues. He is the only one that talks about real issues-others just do politics as usual-bickering, I -said- this-you-said -that.
My own estimate is over 20 % and has been for a long time-years .Just like the COLA is RIGGED so are the unemployment figures.
from the article:
"I think the downturn in the economy occurred in the year 2000," Paul told CNN.
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Now I know Dr. Paul will not get the Republican nomination, not saying stuff like that. IF that is not a condemnation of the GWB administration, then I don't know what is. I know Dr. Paul dislikes the Fed, and Fed Chairman Greenspan pretty much caused the mild recession that the country ws experiencing when Bush was sworn in by over manipulating the prime rate. He tralled to slow econominc growth and succeeded beyond his expectations.
I don't need "The (evil, liberal) Media" to tell me Paul is nuts. I can see it for myself.
from the article:
"The money is out there, it's just that people are frightened and intimidated by all the regulations and they don't know what the future will bring," Paul said.
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Almost all neo-cons, Republicans, and conservatives say that exact same thing. The only people I hear saying stuff like that are conservatives claiming that the "American people" are telling saying this. How many people do you know who say things like that? Not many. None, right? The problem with the economic is not lack of profit by those at the top, it is the lack of demand by those in the middle and at the bottom of the economic food chain.
Never mind the fact that there *have not been* any significant new regulations under the Obama administration, but they say it anyway. The major provisions of both Dodd-Frank and the Affordable Care Act were postponed to take effect.
I like Ron Paul, but he's absolutely batty.
As always, Paul is off his rocker. Yes, unemployment is probably 20%, or higher. The 9% we see in the media are those that have collected, or are collecting, unemployment.
Cutting the budget AND reducing taxes is stupid. Particularly in the amount of 1 trillion in cuts. It can't and won't work. When you cut budgets, you cut jobs. It's a result that can't be avoided. If the money isn't there to pay a salary, the job is no longer required. Corporations already pay little in taxes due to the breaks and loopholes they get. Cutting their taxes to 15% will most definitely insure that they pay almost nothing.
The Bush era tax rates ONLY need to be kept for the poor and middle class. The rich need to pay a little more, and by the rich, I mean the super rich (1mil+). Cutting loopholes will also help.
Ron Paul is a longshot. He isn't going to get the nomination, and even if he did; he is too radical and won't beat Obama.
I wish we had a more moderate candidate, whether it be Republican or Democrat. I'm getting tired of our extremists.
At least he got the date right about 2000, the beginning of the Bush/Chaney "lost decade". People who called themselves conservative proved that the most cherished Republican dogma, that cutting taxes leads to economic growth, failed miserably. Paul would do this again, and no doubt the results will be the same.
Ron Paul will truly shake things up if he is elected President. He want's us to see through all the BS that dragging down the country and wants the American People to wake up from this nightmare.
And here's the only guy, who understands our economic problems, and is not afraid of committing, that we have problems. The media ignore him, but so far he's the only reasonable candidate. I'd really like to see him as president. NO WAR, NO UNBALANCED BUDGET, NO SOCJALIZM!
Ron Paul 2012.
"Frightened and intimidated" into not spending the money that's "out there"? Tell that to the laid off/fired government worker who's trying to keep food on the table. That this man can look America in the face and say he will lay off/fire even more Americans is testament to the fact he is just like any other far-right dingbat. The demonization of the American government worker is the devil at work. So quit saying this man is any different than the other right-wing nuts.
A government that's forced to operate under the confines of a budget that reflects their services, investments, excise fees, tarriffs, etc...
How would we ever live without the pending legislation to create jobs for millions of people by employing them to wipe our rear ends for us?
I saw Paul's interview on Meet the Press and must say it was pretty refreshng and worth the time it has taken me to comment on here. We're just not seeing any of the other candidates discussing real issues like he did on Sunday and we need to see more of that. I must confess I haven't paid much attention to the debates but for sure I'll be keeping an eye out from here on.
Paul is just telling us the true reality that most Americans are in denial about. The government and the media continue to report a 9.6% unemployment rate when the real rate is 20% due to the number of people who no longer receive unemployment because the benefit has run out, but they still remain unemployed.
Pretty funny. If Paul were president, we wouldn't know how many people were unemployed, because there would be no Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nor would we know the population of the U.S., because the Department of Commerce would be history. This man is a crank who is way past his prime–and his prime wasn't very good. Ron Paul 1712! A Man for the Eighteen Century!