It's only a surprise to those that live in the Liberal bubble...detached from reality.
e.g.
In response to the news today that the economy contracted -.1 percent in the final quarter of last year, Democrats are touting the claim that this is "the best-looking contraction in U.S. GDP you'll ever see." The claim was originally made by chief U.S. economist for Capital Economics Paul Ashworth.
"The drag from defense spending and inventories is a one-off. The rest of the report is all encouraging," Ashworth also claimed.
The claim was quickly seized upon by Democrats, looking to share good news about a contracting economy.[/b]
See:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/dems-tout-claim-best-looking-contraction-us-gdp-youll-ever-see_698863.htmlDown is up and up is down, negatives are positive and positives are negative!
Sound familiar to you Orwell fans out there?
And this will be a "surprise" to everyone, something NOBODY could ever have predicted, and I suspect the Leftists will blame capitalists, the weather/global warming, W. Bush, Reagan, and the Easter Bunny for this otherwise negligible contraction.
Because EVERYONE knows that the situation inherited from the (shhh! Democrat-catalyzed) Financial Crash was WORSE than ANYONE knew, and it takes time to sort these things out.
It takes time to drain more money out of the economy and into Government Coffers for redistribution!
Get ready for the following speech:
"So folks just gotta be patient!
You folks out there understand what I'm talkin' about! Now some folks say we got to cut Social Security to the grandmas and grandpas of America, and student loans to the teachers and firefighters and business people of the future, and disability payments to folks injured on the job in unsafe factories, right when things are bad and people are needin' more money!
Well, we can't let that happen! We're just askin' folks at the top to pay a little more so that we can get this economy movin' again!"