@TBPInvictus here:
I thought I’d put the “Reagan-created-one-million-jobs-in-one-month” lie to bed a long time ago. I’d like to think I was the first to expose it for the lie that it is. (See here, here, and, most notably, here.) Sadly, not so much.
Stephen Moore, who apparently may be up for a high profile gig in the incoming Trump administration, went on television very recently – looks like the end of December – to once again repeat this canard:
Stephen Moore either does or should know better. He’s either ignorant or lying, though he certainly could be both. It is not okay for this lie to continue to be spread. People (inexplicably) believe things that people like Stephen Moore say, and when he spreads demonstrable falsehoods, he’s doing us all a disservice – as he will for the next four years if he takes a job for Trump. Reagan’s tax cuts most definitely did not create 1MM jobs in September 1983 – communications workers returning from an August strike gave the illusion of job creation. But it was just that – an illusion.
The simple facts of the matter are these:
- Some 700,000 Communications Workers of America struck AT&T in August 1983
- That “loss” of 700,000 jobs – temporary though it was – was picked up by BLS
- Those same workers came back to work in September 1983
- Their return was similarly picked up by BLS – hence the miracle 1MM jobs month
Here’s how the NY Times covered it:
