[kach22i]

I've found one quote direct from the Whitehouse which is interesting - to me.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/pubpress/2007/111307_jec.html

The report released today by Democrats on the JEC is an unfortunate example of the Congressional leadership attempting to manipulate economic data for public relations purposes.

Of course data is just data until it's in the hands of someone with a goal or agenda.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,316370,00.html

WASHINGTON — The White House has systematically tried to manipulate climate change science and minimize the dangers of global warming, asserts a Democratic congressional report issued after a 16-month investigation.

And if not one thing it's another.

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2007/11/republicans_to_democrats_take.html

This morning, the Democratic members of the Joint Economic Committee issued a report saying that the total cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, taking into account veterans care, market disruptions, foregone investments and the costs of borrowing, could exceed $3.5 trillion over the next decade.

Now the Republican members of the panel want them to take it back.

....and it goes on and on.

From 2003
http://www.slate.com/id/2085481/

The administration muzzles routine economic information that's unfavorable. Last year, for example, the administration stopped issuing a monthly Bureau of Labor Statistics report, known as the Mass Layoff Statistics program, that tracked factory closings throughout the country. The cancellation was made known on Christmas Eve in a footnote to the department's final report—a document that revealed 2,150 mass layoffs in November, cashiering nearly a quarter-million workers. The administration claimed the report was a victim of budget cuts. After the Washington Post happened to catch this bit of data suppression, the BLS report was reinstated. (Interestingly, President George H.W. Bush buried these same statistics in '92, also during a period of job losses. They were revived by President Clinton.)

The Bush economic team has snuffed its own reports when they reach conclusions that don't match the administration's rosy scenarios. The administration deep-sixed a study commissioned by then Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill that predicts huge budget deficits well into the future.

................The administration also muffled a customary report whose findings would have forced key corporate supporters to pay more to their employees. The annual Adverse Effect Wage Rate establishes..........

Another administration trick is playing with the length of its economic forecast periods, which puts the best possible face on bad news while exaggerating the projected benefits of its own initiatives. For example, to heighten the impression that Social Security is running out of money (thereby strengthening the case for allowing workers to divert money from the system into private retirement accounts), the administration has predicted shortfalls far in the future by relying on preposterously long forecast periods.

Many examples of manipulation in that last 2003 article , has to be something more current.

Is the press just tired out from reporting on all the other scandals?