Bush Administration Hides More Data, Shuts Down Website Tracking U.S. Economic Indicators

Think Progress:

The U.S. economy is faltering. Family debt is on the rise, benefits are disappearing, the deficit is skyrocketing, and the mortgage crisis has worsened. Conservatives have attempted to deflect attention from the crisis, by blaming the media's negative coverage and insisting the United States is not headed toward a recession, despite what economists are predicting.

The Bush administration's latest move is to simply hide the data. Forbes has awarded EconomicIndicators.gov one of its "Best of the Web" awards. As Forbes explains, the government site provides an invaluable service to the public for accessing U.S. economic data:

This site is maintained by the Economics and Statistics Administration and combines data collected by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, like GDP and net imports and exports, and the Census Bureau, like retail sales and durable goods shipments. The site simply links to the relevant department's Web site. This might not seem like a big deal, but doing it yourself-say, trying to find retail sales data on the Census Bureau's site-is such an exercise in futility that it will convince you why this portal is necessary.

Read the whole story: Think Progress

Comments

[MadJeffersonian]

Well, well, well. I love how the Bush Crime Syndicate calls for other leaders and countries to make their governments more open and transparent and pro-democracy while here at home, they lie, hide, deny equal access, and obfuscate.

These SOBs have stolen the government from WE THE PEOPLE only to enrich themselves, their friends and supporters, and their minions.

What a mockery they have made of OUR country, OUR Constitution, OUR citizens, OUR ideals, and OUR values.

[watchingthings]

Bush's way to deal with a crisis.....stick you head in the sand and hope the crisis goes away.

[abbiehoffmansghost]

He would have to remove it from his ass in order to put it in the sand.

[gcallaghan]

The retarded codpieceboy is terrified of truth.

Republicans = Military Failure

[abbiehoffmansghost]

Republicans=Failure.

[dolphy]

Rethugs=failure in everything good for the people

[ElkoJohn]

the big-money, the MSM, & the neoCons
run our country from their Washington DC Command Center
& Emperor George is THEIR Commander-in-Chief
THE INTERNET is our only resource to find & publish TRUTH
soon the Emperor will shut down the internet too
we must continue to wage war against this traitorous Establishment
which only cares about MONEY, NOT OUR COUNTRY
we must keep the internet functioning at all costs
we must support Congressman Ron Paul
and his efforts to dismantle the enemy's Command Center
and to protect our country from being bankrupted
.... for the profit of the big-money types
VOTERS OF AMERICA UNITE
THE REVOLUTION IS BEING FOUGHT AGAIN
this time for our Constitution
RE-READ IT,
AND the Declaration of Independence
AND Lincoln's Gettysburg Address
then
"DAMN THE TORPEDOES, FULL SPEED AHEAD"
join the FIGHT to SAVE OUR COUNTRY
when the supporters of Dr. Paul
MARCH ON WASHINGTON
JOIN US. . . .
your grandchildren will be proud

[Citizenofreality]

Who needs THEIR data all you have to do is look at your own checking account.

[tumblewind]

More of his 'smoke and mirror's' policies! Put the best face possible on a looming disaster! Keep on smiling and telling everyone how great it's getting until the roof caves in! The same nonsense is going on in Iraq and Afghanistan both! Why anyone still votes for this bunch of yahoos is beyond me. As a political party they are hopeless losers. They must want to see this country fail as a democracy!

[bola47]

but this website is still active whitehouse.gov/barney. and people still ask me why i belong to the cynical party.

[Harrier]

Both he and his father do the same thing when the economy goes south. When the economy was tanking during this Presidents first recession, he also cut funding to track the number of companies laying off 500 or more. Companies were legally forced to disclose it, but Bush made it so there was no money to record it. When some was helping to do it voluntarily, that person was forced to transfer

[MACS]

.
Bush still claims that denial is a river in Egypt. Why does he deny the facts of lifen and the economy? It is time for him to return his MBA to Harvard.
.

[vippy]

Except it was not the Arabs that did 9/11.
Clinton changed the banking laws in 1999 and
we now are seeing the results. Just like the
gas prices! Economists kept saying they did not see results of the high gas prices, why would they, most people put it on their credit
cards, which now are defaulting. Now gas rises again and give it a couple of months and we will see the result of it. And no, neither Hillary nor Obama will address the oil future's markets and hedge funds, all empty talk with no real plan.

[doinaheckofajob]

it is still clinton's fault heh shitforbrains? god what a loser you are.

[dolphy]

But Clinton.... but Clinton.... but.. Go away dumbass. Got to your corner and GFY!!!!!!!!!!

[OneVoiceInACrowd]

From the site:
Due to budgetary constraints, the Economic Indicators service http://www.economicindicators.govv) will be discontinued effective March 1, 2008.

Kind of like saying, because the economy is so bad we are not going to report on the economy anymore.

Thoughtful of them....

[outnow]

Time to roll out the good news in Iraq or Afghanistan. The liberal media like Fox News just won't allow that.

[Macready]

illegal wire tapping, illegal invasions, hiding information . . . this criminal cabal has to be impeached . . .

[outnow]

Invasive therapy to stop the cancer before it spreads. Now you see why plaintiff's lawyers favor punitive damages - to punish and set an example of the evil-doers conduct.

[MilwaukeeDan]

This is a little off subject, but has anyone seen any of our leaders answer questions real Americans might ask? What can you say about the White house press corps, rhymes with whore? This is nothing new, they have been lying to us for decades. I was reading an article yesterday about Vladimir Putin and a speach he gave at the Kremlin on Wed. There were over 1000 journalists(many foreign) and Putin answered questions for 4 HOURS and 40 MINUTES after the speach. I don't think Bush has gone over the 4 hour mark in all of his press conferences combined. We all bitch about no democracy in Russia, but at least their leader is willing to take the heat. With our leadership, any tough questions, and you miss the lunch afterwards and aren't asked to come back tommorow.

[OneVoiceInACrowd]

You've made the mistake of thinking Bush really cares about what our questions are. He prefers to dictate the way things are instead of responding to our petty interests. Can you say dictatorship?

[MACS]

.
bush continues to refuse to admit that his economic policies are an ABSOLUTE FAILURE for working Americans. When will Harvard demand the return of the MBA that bush received as "LEGACY" affirmative action???

[outnow]

The churches are to blame for supporting the Republicans. Sure, the very wealthy want tax breaks and no regulation. The wedge issues are being used to bolster the support for free trade and deregulation. Hint for rednecks - they don't allow guns in bankruptcy court although gays are allowed! Go home and tell that to your starving children!

[dolphy]

The fundies were tricked into supporting these sociopaths. They fell for all the bs "social issues" that these fundies considered important. Fundies don't use their brains, they checked them at the door when they joined the mega-churches.

[Dendroica]

They aren't suppressing the data, or preventing its generation. What they are doing, is making it MUCH HARDER for the layman, or even the casual investor to go to all of the convoluted websites and gather it all together. I've done plenty of research using BLS, BEA, Census, and IRS websites, but nine-times out of ten, finding EXACTLY what I want is like pulling teeth. And most of the time if I get it, they'll change the site within a month and move the links...

They've done this with NOAA as well- used to be able to easily find temperature data, now the raw stuff requires serious digging, and don't bother with Google, you'll see 10,000,000 hits, none of them leading you where you need to go.