# February jobs report **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [March 9, 2018, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/february-jobs-report/810310 "2018-03-09T23:35:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/february-jobs-report/810310/41 "2018-03-10T17:16:43Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > As I’ve said before, that aspect of the tax cuts (the addition to the debt) is the one that I’m least comfortable with. It’s a mostly silver cloud with a bit of black lining, in my eyes. More like a black cloud with a thin sliver streak down one side. ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/february-jobs-report/810310/42 "2018-03-10T17:25:56Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > In which post do you think I was “pretending \* didn’t say it”? In every post in which you didn’t back it up or retract it. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/february-jobs-report/810310/43 "2018-03-10T17:38:19Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > Imagine if Trump had to turn around a ruined economy like Obama had to, instead of walking into one that was humming along. Yes, people really don’t appreciate the challenge that Obama faced. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/february-jobs-report/810310/44 "2018-03-10T17:54:11Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Yes, people really don’t appreciate the challenge that Obama faced. I do, or at least I try to. For example, comparing Trump’s second February to Obama’s would be unfair to Obama. Different times, different circumstances. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/february-jobs-report/810310/45 "2018-03-10T18:16:01Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > LOL! SALT deductions are capped at $10k and NYers think I’m the mark. That elicits another eyeroll. Yeahrite. Because so many NYers voted for Trump (aside from every Republican mark in sight). Give me a break. > [@](#): > > Look, I’m not happy about the debt level. I wasn’t happy about it under Bush or Obama, and I suspect Trump will not end up being any better, but going from $30T to $31.5T … It’s hard for me to get very animated about that relatively minor increase in exchange for a tax cut. Sorry, you can’t paint $1.5 TRILLION DOLLARS as minor in any way. But as long as your bottom line got marginally better, it doesn’t matter that you’re mortgaging the future even more, huh? Party of fiscal responsibility my ass. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/february-jobs-report/810310/46 "2018-03-10T18:22:09Z")
> [@Johnny\_Ace](#): > > Yeahrite. Because so many NYers voted for Trump (aside from every Republican mark in sight). Give me a break. 36.8% of NY voters chose Trump. That’s 2.8 million voters. If you had a point here, I’ve missed it. > [@Johnny\_Ace](#): > > Sorry, you can’t paint $1.5 TRILLION DOLLARS as minor in any way. But as long as your bottom line got marginally better, it doesn’t matter that you’re mortgaging the future even more, huh? Party of fiscal responsibility my ass. I have not said it “doesn’t matter”. I think the 5% increase in the national debt over a 10-year-period is the most lamentable part of a mostly-good bill. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/february-jobs-report/810310/47 "2018-03-10T18:31:46Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > 36.8% of NY voters chose Trump. That’s 2.8 million voters. If you had a point here, I’ve missed it. Interesting that that percentage is the about the same as the lowest approval ratings that Trump has reached several times already. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/february-jobs-report/810310/48 "2018-03-10T19:44:27Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Interesting that that percentage is the about the same as the lowest approval ratings that Trump has reached several times already. But that’s New York State. In New York City it was 79% Clinton, 19% Trump, even with Staten Island skewing the numbers. In Manhattan, where Trumps “businesses” are based, he got 10%. Familiarity breeds contempt where Trump is concerned. He was considered a slightly larcenous glad-hander at best, and many of his friends turned enemies thought he was “in on the joke”. That’s from his former friend Joe Scarborough. And the “joke” that he used to be in on was the fiction that he was a legitimate businessman. ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/february-jobs-report/810310/49 "2018-03-10T20:58:46Z")
Cheering America’s failure because it makes your political opponents look bad is really more of a conservative thing. [Cite](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3_Dd1gItVc) ---
**Author:** ![Chisquirrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6bbea6/32.png) [@Chisquirrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chisquirrel)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/february-jobs-report/810310/50 "2018-03-10T22:51:05Z")
> [@Lance\_Turbo](#): > > Cheering America’s failure because it makes your political opponents look bad is really more of a conservative thing. > > [Cite](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3_Dd1gItVc) To be fair, that’s not what **HurricaneDitka** is trying to say. He’s saying “certain” (most-likely) liberals would be upset that the jobs report was good. Since that view is worth about as much as a Zimbabwean billionaire, it’s pretty easy to note that his other views on libruls are probably just as fantastically distorted - though anyone that didn’t know it before wasn’t paying attention. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/february-jobs-report/810310/51 "2018-03-10T22:58:41Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > BTW, this is false (at least according to [a 2015 YouGov poll](https://today.yougov.com/news/2015/02/24/obama-patriotism/)): Lots of people don’t love what America has become. A white nationalist, plutocratic version of idiocracy where stupidity is a virtue. But that doesn’t mean they don’t want America to get better. “Do you love America” is such a form of pablum though, like ‘Do you support the troops’. It ignores all the complex nuances of policy and how people feel about those policies. ---
**Author:** ![Anny\_Middon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc79bd/32.png) [@Anny\_Middon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anny_Middon)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/february-jobs-report/810310/52 "2018-03-10T23:42:22Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Lots of people don’t love what America has become. A white nationalist, plutocratic version of idiocracy where stupidity is a virtue. But that doesn’t mean they don’t want America to get better. Most liberals I know love America more than many conservatives. We don’t think America is longer great – we think (well, at least until Trump was inaugurated) that America was already pretty darn great, and getting greater all the time. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2018, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/february-jobs-report/810310/53 "2018-03-11T00:04:26Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Lots of people don’t love what America has become. A white nationalist, plutocratic version of idiocracy where stupidity is a virtue. But that doesn’t mean they don’t want America to get better. … Did you happen to notice the date of the poll? ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2018, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/february-jobs-report/810310/54 "2018-03-11T00:05:58Z")
> [@Anny\_Middon](#): > > Most liberals I know love America more than many conservatives. … That’s a fine anecdote. The data appears to disagree. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2018, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/february-jobs-report/810310/55 "2018-03-11T00:58:46Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > BTW, this is false (at least according to [a 2015 YouGov poll](https://today.yougov.com/news/2015/02/24/obama-patriotism/)): The margin of error on that poll is ±4.1%, so the “do you love America” question actually does slightly overlap at the very edges. But, regardless, in either case, a vast majority of Americans, whether conservative, moderate, or liberal say they love America. This goes against the attitude I get from some conservatives that liberals are hell-bent on destroying America and hate it, when that poll you linked shows that 82% of liberals say they love this country. (I personally would probably be one of the 18% to answer “no” there, but that’s because I simply do not believe in “loving” a country of any kind. I absolutely appreciate America and want it to do well and be great. “Love” is not the right word for the emotion.) ---
**Author:** ![pdhenry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pdhenry/32/5561_2.png) [@pdhenry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pdhenry)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2018, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/february-jobs-report/810310/56 "2018-03-11T01:03:32Z")
Forget it. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2018, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/february-jobs-report/810310/57 "2018-03-11T02:08:57Z")
I suspect that “loving America” means different things to different people. To conservatives, it means loving guns and hating everybody who you don’t think is a real American. To liberals, it’s the ideal of a nation where all are welcome and respected. Since the liberal ideal hasn’t been achieved, it’s no wonder that polls show that liberals are less satisfied. To give the Donald credit for the jobs makes no sense to me. I’ve always thought presidents get too much credit and blame for the performance of the economy. It was humming along fairly well before the election, and cutting taxes when things go well makes no sense. It’s like priming a pump that’s already running. All we’ve done is racked up bills to the extent that we can’t cut taxes again to stimulate the economy when it really needs it. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2018, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/february-jobs-report/810310/58 "2018-03-11T02:59:37Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > I suspect that “loving America” means different things to different people. … To liberals, it’s the ideal of a nation where all are welcome and respected. Since the liberal ideal hasn’t been achieved, it’s no wonder that polls show that liberals are less satisfied. If you review the poll question closely, you’ll find that it doesn’t ask if their ideal has been achieved, or if they’re satisfied. It simply asks “Do you love America?” which is about as direct a refutation to **Little Nemo** ’s claim as I could imagine. Look, I get it: most everyone on both sides of the aisle loves America, and people on both sides are well-meaning and sincere even if they define things like patriotism and love of country a bit differently sometimes. But if **Little Nemo** is going to get his nose out of joint because I shared my suspicions about “more than a few Dopers” and make up bullshit about my “conservative bubble” while also making idiotic claims that are so easily and directly refutable, I’ll happily oblige him and see if he wants to twist himself into a pretzel trying to work his way out of his self-made jam or run away (I’m good either way). And if you want to join in the pretzel-twisting, be my guest I guess, but it’s not a point I think you should feel the need to try to refute because 1) he made a false claim and 2) I readily concede that the vast majority of people on both sides of our political divide are good decent folks that want the best for their country. I hope we agree on this point. > [@BobLibDem](#): > > … I’ve always thought presidents get too much credit and blame for the performance of the economy. … I largely agree. In the OP I said that “This is the sort of news that I’m sure is met with delight in the White House”, not that I felt Donald Trump deserves a bunch of credit for it. He’ll probably get a bunch of credit for it, regardless of how you or I feel, which is why I said he “seems to be having a very good start to his second year”. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2018, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/february-jobs-report/810310/59 "2018-03-11T03:45:39Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > If you review the poll question closely, you’ll find that it doesn’t ask if their ideal has been achieved, or if they’re satisfied. It simply asks “Do you love America?” which is about as direct a refutation to **Little Nemo** ’s claim as I could imagine. I’ll say this about that question: the concept of “do you love America?” is, IMO, a bit of a litmus test / rallying cry for conservatives (more so than liberals), and “America: Love It or Leave It” has been a conservative saying for decades. And, some (certainly not all) conservatives have been frequently eager to accuse liberals of “not loving America” because of their views. Plus, the question in the poll may seem really straightforward to you, but I can absolutely see some respondents as viewing it through the lens of “what America is today, versus what its ideals are.” ---
**Author:** ![anomalous1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e56c9b/32.png) [@anomalous1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anomalous1)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2018, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/february-jobs-report/810310/60 "2018-03-11T04:20:29Z")
I of course am guilty of this, but I know it is **not safe to assume all liberals are “ultra-left-progressive-marxist-hippie-vegan-kill-whitey” types, just as it is not** safe to assume all conservatives are “ultra-right-fascist-nazi-authoritarian-kill-blacks-gun freak” types. I believe we all just assume the worst from those on opposite sides of the aisle and assume they are in the extremes of the political spectrum. It’s ignorant stereotyping that is really difficult to break. The reality of the matter is most of us on this message board would probably get along really well IRL. Because despite different ideology, most of us have the same goal, what is best for the U.S. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/february-jobs-report/810310.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/february-jobs-report/810310.md?page=4)