You Can Say That Again: US Economic Health in the Eye of the Beholder

From AP, and bear in mind that NO administration has fudged unemployment and economic figures like the Bushies who disregard anything that isn't favorable, nor does it ever take into account how the U.S. dollar is in freefall and falling faster than ever before:

America's economy is strong. Or it's in trouble. It just depends on who's talking. Trying to retool his message and right his listing presidency, President is speaking out more frequently and forcefully on the economy.

It's in good shape right now, his advisers say, and they want him to take more credit for it.

The latest reports show healthy increases in economic growth, job creation, home ownership, retail sales and consumer spending. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is at a six-year high.

"This economy is powerful, productive and prosperous and we intend to keep it that way," Bush says.

Across town, Democrats are peddling a different message: Soaring gasoline and health care costs are burdening ordinary people; mortgage costs and credit card rates are on the rise; jobs are threatened by outsourcing.

As for those tax cuts treasured by Bush, Democrats argue they have benefited mainly the wealthy.

"There's no sharing in the prosperity that the president likes to herald," House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California said.
Friday's unemployment report, showing the jobless rate holding steady at 4.7 percent with a lower-than-expected job-creation rate of 138,000 in April, was seized by both sides to buttress their great-economy/troubled-economy arguments.