Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) took a page from the Mitt Romney playbook when he told a conservative audience at an event last week that 47 percent of able-bodied people in the state don't work, the Bangor Daily News reported Tuesday.Politifact rates this statement "mostly true" because the real figure undoubtedly contains two digits followed by a percent symbol.
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"Number two, when you talk about workforce development, it really means that the people that -- about 47 percent of able-bodied people in the state of Maine don't work," LePage said. A woman can then be heard on the recording reacting to that figure, to which LePage reiterated "About 47 percent. It's really bad."
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Tuesday, October 22, 2013
The 47%, Redux
Maine Governor Paul LePage (R) takes a page out of Mitt Romney's book (via):
The 47% figure is weird in two ways:
ReplyDelete(1) Maine generally has a higher employment rate than the US as a whole, especially in summer, so even if Romney were right that 47% of the US as a whole is uselessly sucking the government teat, Maine probably would have a slightly lower percent.
(2) LePage's own statisticians in Maine state government put the employment to population ratio at 60%. So even if everyone were "able bodied" and able to be employed for wages, that still would be only 40% of them not working.
Maybe 47% is a kind of mystical number for Republicans now, like 42 for nerds.
Speaking of doubtful "mostly true" statements, I couldn't find this topic discussed on Politifact.
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