The Obama administration has repeatedly emphasized the need to boost U.S. exports overseas in order to increase jobs on our shores. But Factcheck.org points out that the spin put on the latest numbers by the administration shamelessly, and mysteriously, provides a misleading picture.
President Obama declared more than a year ago that he wanted to double U.S. exports by the end of 2014. But the White House seems desperate to make those numbers come true.
On the same day that U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk declared progress on the president’s pledge, in a speech to the Washington International Trade Association, the Commerce Department reported disappointing growth in the overall U.S. economy, in part because net export growth was essentially flat.
It was especially strange, according to Factcheck.org, to brag about success on the very day the latest GDP report showed that export growth had slowed.
“We are working to meet President Obama’s National Export Initiative goal of doubling exports by the end of 2014. I’m pleased to report our efforts are getting results. Exports were up 17 percent last year,” Kirk said in his speech. “Increased exports have contributed to 13 straight months of overall private sector job growth, which has added a total of 1.8 million overall private sector jobs.”
When the government announced last Thursday that the U.S. economy had grown at just 1.8 percent in the first quarter of this year, compared to 3.1 percent GDP growth in the last quarter of 2010, the economic update was definitely bad news for exporters.
The Commerce Department, in fact, put the dismaying export news first on the list of reasons for disappointing GDP result: “Imports turned up strongly, and exports slowed.”
Essentially, what Factcheck.org found was that the administration was playing games with the numbers. Less imports is good, more exports is good too. But any honest analyst has to balance the gains and losses.
Imports had fallen in the fourth quarter of 2010, boosting the GDP, but in the first quarter of 2011 they had caught up to exports.
“In other words,” Factcheck.org said in its summary, “it is all well and good to brag about a 17 percent growth in exports, as Kirk does, but that’s only half the picture. It’s a lot like claiming your income went up 17 percent without mentioning that your expenses (food, housing expenses, taxes) also went up as well.”
