To The Editor: The anonymity of Spout Off! Contributions lead some to spread falsehoods without identification. Such is the case with a Jan. 11 Spouter who invented false unemployment statistics. Here is a restatement: Bush entered office with 10.3 percent unemployment, and Obama reduced it to 8.6 percent. First, if Obama inherited a 10.3 percent unemployment rate, why would he make speeches in 2009 that unless Congress passed his so-called “stimulus” plan, unemployment would rise to 8 percent? Wouldn’t the change to 8 percent be a drop? That would be a case against the stimulus! But you see, the rate was below 8 percent for these speeches to make sense. History discredits the 10.3 percent figure. By the way, since unemployment rocketed past 8 percent on the heels of the stimulus, the economy would have been better without it. These are the actual numbers: January, 2001, 4 .2 percent; January 2009, 7.8 percent; December 2011, 8.6 percent. Even these aren’t the actual figures for two reasons: 1. Obama stopped counting those who gave up searching for work as unemployed, and 2: These are the U3 statistics used by all presidents since Carter to mask the true rates. The U6 rates are: January 2001, 7.1 percent; January 2009, 14 .2 percent; December 2011, 15.2 percent. My source is the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Employment shrank under Bush and Obama. I’m not a party shill, so I’ll call facts as they are. But is Obama‘s real unemployment rate something we want for another four years? It’s also time for Obama to start being president and take responsibility for his economy and quit the blame game. As others have said in this newspaper, Obama made more sweeping economic changes and passed more of his agenda than any previous president. What does it tell us that Obama and his defenders have to run on distortions and avoid his real record? NICK MORENCY Cape May Beach