Another reason not to believe what politicans say about the economy*

Asked about April's lackluster employment report, Mitt Romney said that the U.S. should be generating 500,000 jobs a month instead of the 115,000 created in April. Really? Turns out that a 500,000-job month is a rarity in the U.S. economy - since 1970, it's happened only five times, according to Real Time Economics.

Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, amid strong economic times, only logged one 500,000-plus month each, in 1983 and 1997 respectively. President Obama had one in May 2010.(And remember, regularly hitting 500,000 should get easier over time as the population grows.) Presidents George H.W. Bush and son George W. Bush had no months with more than 500,000 jobs gained. Neither did Presidents Gerald Ford or Richard Nixon.

Romney took another cheap shot at Jimmy Carter this week, but he might be interested to know that there were two 500,000+ months during his administration - in March 1978 and April 1978.

*Update: At a speech in Pittsburgh, Romney revised the half-million figure to "hundreds of thousands." Just making it up as he goes along.