Is it worse than they say?

Data Fudging 101. The History Of US Government Statistics Manipulation

Phillips convincingly demonstrates that the real unemployment rate in the United States is between 9 and 12 percent, not the 5 percent or less that is officially claimed. The real rate of inflation is not 2 or 3 percent, but instead, between 7 and 10 percent. And real economic growth has been about 1 percent, not the 3-4 percent officially claimed during the most recent Wall Street and housing bubble that has burst.

This seems like stuff that is hard to prove absolutely, but I can certainly understand the political motivation behind such fudging.