Hillary Clinton Twists Jeb Bushs Words

Hillary Clinton has continued to twist Jeb Bushs words, suggesting that he thinks the nurse who stands on her feet all day or the trucker who drives all night needs to work longer hours. Bush did say people need to work longer hours, but he has since said he was talking about part-time workers who want full-time hours.

We dont know what Bush had in mind when he first spoke, but his explanation is consistent with his previous statements about the underemployed.

Bushs longer hours comment exploded on social media, and in traditional media, as Democrats pounced on a carelessly worded response to a question about tax reform that the Republican presidential candidate fielded in New Hampshire from The Union Leader:

His campaign quickly clarified that the longer hours quote was a reference to the underemployed and part-time workers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics , there were 6.5 million people in June who said they were working part-time because they couldnt find full-time work or because business was slow. By comparison, that figure was 4.6 million when the Great Recession started in December 2007 .

Nonetheless, a number of Democrats criticized Bush for being out-of-touch, accusing him of saying Americans ought to work more than the standard 40 hours a week.

Americans already work the longest hours of any people in the western industrialized world, said Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders . In fact, 80 percent of working men work longer than 40 hours a week.

(Actually, Sanders was wrong. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Americans worked more hours than the average for OECD-member countries, but ranked 15th out of the 34 countries surveyed. And, OECD reported , 83 percent of men and 65 percent of women in the U.S. worked 40 hours or more but thats not the same as working more than 40 hours.)

The jabs continued on Twitter, where Rep. Steve Israel wrote: Bush: People should work longer hours; next up: Bush: GDP could double without those lazy weekends.

The Clinton campaign tweeted out , Anyone who believes Americans arent working hard enough hasnt met enough American workers.

Bush addressed the budding controversy himself the same day, telling reporters, If were going to grow the economy, people need to stop being part-time workers, they need to be having access to greater opportunities to work.

That explanation is not only a plausible clarification of his original comment, it is consistent with previous statements Bush has made about the problem of underemployment.

For example, when laying out his economic plan on Feb. 4 at the Detroit Economic Club , Bush said the Obama economy had led to workers hours being cut (at the 14:51 mark of the video).

Bush was referring to the Affordable Care Acts requirement for employers with at least 50 workers to provide health insurance to full-time employees, defined as those who work 30 hours or more per week . Bush and other critics of the ACA say that encourages employers to cut workers hours to avoid the insurance requirement.

The Bush campaign also addressed the issue of underemployment in a July 5 Medium blog post , stating: More than 6 million people are working part-time jobs when theyd prefer full-time. That same post blamed the Obama-backed Affordable Care Act for holding down worker hours and reducing the payoff from working.

And in an interview with Neil Cavuto on Fox News on June 2, Bush lamented that the work force participation rate is lower than it was 30 years ago.

(As an aside, we have noted that the ratio of part-time workers to all workers is about the same as when Obama took office. We also addressed the reasons for the declining workforce participation rate.)

Some Democrats have softened their tone on the longer hours quote in light of Bushs clarification. For example, Sanders said this July 10 after CNN anchor Chris Cuomo accused Sanders of twisting Bushs words: Well, if [Bush] is talking about the need for more full-time jobs rather than part-time jobs, hes absolutely correct. Thats thats what we have to. But I want to reiterate. We work our people work today the longest hours of any people in any major industrialized country.

Clinton has continued to take digs at Bushs longer hours comment, suggesting that Bush thinks that already hard-working Americans need to work harder still. One example came during a speech on July 13 at the National Council of La Razas annual conference. (starting at the 11:36 mark)

Clinton made nearly identical remarks when outlining her economic policy plan the same day in New York City (starting at the 21:30 mark).

The Clinton campaign says she was simply making the point that the central economic problem for American workers is not that they need to work longer hours, but rather that they are not paid enough for the hours they do work.

During this speech, Hillary Clinton laid out what she views as the defining economic challenge of our time: Raising incomes for hardworking Americans so they can afford a middle class life, Clinton spokesman Josh Schwerin told us via email. The contrast she was making with Bush is that hes not offering any ideas to address this central economic challenge.

Thats an argument worthy of political debate. But by highlighting Bushs comment about people needing to work longer hours and following that with the suggestion that Bush needs to tell that to the nurse who stands on her feet all day or the teacher who is in that classroom or the trucker who drives all night, Clinton implies that Bush thinks those workers need to work more hours. Those are full-time workers, but Bush says he wasnt referring to them at all.

Misrepresenting your opponents words is a campaign staple, of course. It reminds us at FactCheck.org of Republicans twisting Obamas quote, If youve got a business you didnt build that, and of Obama spinning Mitt Romneys quote that we shouldnt move heaven and earth to get one man, referring to Osama bin Laden.

Bushs longer hours comment makes for hard-to-resist material during a heated campaign, appealing to full-time workers who might be offended by someone saying he or she needs to work longer hours. Wed be surprised if this doesnt continue to be a frequent attack point. But Bush has since clarified that his words were being misinterpreted, and that he was making an argument in favor of part-time workers who want more hours to be given those opportunities.