This Week's TriFacta
June 20, 2011
This is the first installment of Conference’s weekly “TriFacta,” a document designed to share new data, quotes or communication tools on the subjects of 1) jobs and the economy, 2) spending and 3) Medicare. This document will also link Members and staff to new Conference products produced in the last week.
If you have any questions or would like to submit an idea for next week’s “Tri-Facta,” please contact Emily.Seidel@mail.house.gov.
Jobs
- Small Business Optimism Reaches 8-Month Low: According to the National Federation of Independent Business’ (NFIB) June 2011 Small Business Economic Trends report, optimism among small business owners that the economic outlook will improve in the short term fell to its lowest level since September 2010 and has declined for three straight months.
- Entrepreneurship is at a 17-Year Low: According to Bureau of Labor Statistic’s data, the number of new business start-ups has fallen to the lost level since the data was first recorded in 1994. Since 2007, there has been a 23% drop in new business creation.
- Only 5 Percent of Small Firms Believe They Can Expand Now: According to the NFIB, only 5% of surveyed small business owners view the current period as a good time to expand; of those who view it as a bad time to expand, 71% of those blame the weak economy, and 14% cite political uncertainty.
Spending
- “History makes clear that failure to put our fiscal house in order will erode the vitality of our economy, reduce the standard of living in the United States, and increase the risk of economic and financial instability.”—Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke June 14, 2011.
Medicare
- The Washington Post’s Fact Checker gave the AARP “Four Pinocchios” for its Medicare ad that began airing across the nation last week. A “Four Pinocchio” rating is the Fact Checker’s harshest rating. According to the Fact Checker:
- “The AARP ad perpetuates the worst stereotypes about how easy it would be to balance the budget. At a time when the nation’s fiscal crisis—amid the looming retirement of the baby-boom generation-- demands informed and reasoned debate, the AARP misinforms its members about the choices the nation faces. The choice is not between shrimp treadmills and Medicare; the question is how growth in the big entitlement programs can be restrained to accommodate the baby-boom generation without harming the elderly already receiving benefits. If AARP has identified real spending cuts worth $100 billion, it should have made an ad promoting those ideas, not an ad perpetuating myths.”
- “The AARP ad perpetuates the worst stereotypes about how easy it would be to balance the budget. At a time when the nation’s fiscal crisis—amid the looming retirement of the baby-boom generation-- demands informed and reasoned debate, the AARP misinforms its members about the choices the nation faces. The choice is not between shrimp treadmills and Medicare; the question is how growth in the big entitlement programs can be restrained to accommodate the baby-boom generation without harming the elderly already receiving benefits. If AARP has identified real spending cuts worth $100 billion, it should have made an ad promoting those ideas, not an ad perpetuating myths.”
The Republican Plan for Job Creation and Growth
House Republicans have a plan to restore confidence and certainty to the economy and create jobs. For more information on the House Republican Growth Plan, click here: http://www.gop.gov/indepth/jobs.
For additional information, contact:
The House Republican Conference Policy Office
