Let's see if it makes it past Spoiled Prince Harry.Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (R-Calif.) intends to press GOP leaders to move his bill to include the number of individuals who gave up looking for work in the percentage of jobless claims.
Should the government measure unemployment with Hunter's figure, the unemployment rate would be higher than the current rate of approximately 8 percent-- a potentially devastating assessment for the White House, especially in an election year.
The San Diego-based lawmaker contends that he did not introduce his bill to make the president look bad, since the number would reflect poorly on all individuals in charge of government.
On a recent interview with Fox News Channel's Martha MacCallum, Hunter said, "it makes me look bad too when unemployment is sliding ... it makes the Republican Congress, the president and the Democratic Senate - anybody who is an elected representative and in charge look bad. I don't think it goes one way."
His one-page legislation, the "REAL Unemployment Calculation Act" would require "the federal government [to] cite, as its official unemployment calculation, the figure that takes into account those who are no longer looking for work," not only those individuals actively seeking jobs.