Jobs report gives GOP a powerful talking point
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who officially announced his campaign yesterday, says that the latest disappointing jobs report indicates that America is going in the wrong direction.
In fact, most indicators show the country is moving in the right direction -- just as not quickly as most would like. But for the nearly 14 million Americans out of work, that's little consolation. While Romney this week has exaggerated about the state of the economy, the slow growth has given Republicans a powerful tool to use in both next year's elections and in Congress.
The Labor Department's jobs report today shows that the unemployment rate rose to 9.1 percent in May. Employers hired only 54,000 new workers last month, the fewest in eight months.
Romney, from the campaign trail in Manchester, New Hampshire, said the state of the economy is "simply inexcusable."(Watch his remarks in the video above.)
"Three years into Obama's four-year term, and you still got huge numbers of Americans out of work, home values continue to decline, a record breaking number of foreclosures," he said. "It's time to take a new direction."
In a statement released, Romney added that the unemployment figures "show that we are going backwards, and that is the wrong direction for America. President Obama's policies made the recession worse and as a result more people are out of work."
America isn't exactly going backwards, however. The economy has improved under the Obama administration, as outlined in this "fact check" from the Associated Press. In a White House blog post today, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers Austan Goolsbee noted that the private sector has added more than 2.1 million jobs over the past 15 months. The economy got a boost from Obama administration initiatives, like the payroll tax cut and incentives for businesses to invest, he said.
Still, Goolsbee called the unemployment rate "unacceptably high." He cautioned, however, that employment estimates are subject to revision and thus, "it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report."
Republicans are quick to point out they have more than just one report to go on. The national unemployment has remained above 8 percent for 28 consecutive months, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee is making sure voters in key 2012 states are aware of that. The figure stands in stark contrast to the promises Democrats made after passing the 2009 stimulus package.
"The government must act to stimulate job creation," Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, up for re-election next year, said in 2009. "If we don't, then we're going to have some explaining to do."
The underwhelming results of the stimulus should be a cause for concern for the president. As CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Chip Reid points out, no president since Franklin Roosevelt has won re-election when the unemployment rate was above 7.2 percent.
Meanwhile, the president's liberal base is lamenting the fact that the president isn't pursuing further stimulus plans -- as well as the perception that the White House doesn't even have any "appetite" for liberal job creation strategies, as Jared Bernstein, former chief economist for Vice President Joe Biden, recently said.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka bemoaned last month's "meager" job creation in a statement and criticized Washington's focus on deficit reduction. "Instead of doing what is necessary to stimulate the economy, invest in jobs, and restore consumer confidence, too many in Washington continue to clamor for harmful spending cuts to advance their own political interests," he said.
With the president's strategy producing such slow-going results, it's no wonder Romney and other Republicans are on the attack.
Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said the unemployment numbers are "further evidence that the Administration's policies are failing and the Obama recession could become much worse."
"America cannot wait, we must take immediate steps to put America back on the path of economic growth and job creation," he said, calling for all GOP presidential candidates attending the June 13 Republican debate to come ready to explain their jobs plan.
Presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty said the jobs report "demonstrates President Obama's failure to address the tough challenges we face as a nation. We need a leader to stand up and make the difficult choices essential to spur economic growth and create new jobs."
Like the presidential candidates, House Speaker John Boehner argued today that the high unemployment figures prove that job-creating businesses are over-taxed and over-regulated.
"One look at the jobs report should be enough to show the White House that it's time to get serious about cutting spending and dealing with our ailing economy," he said.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Republicans are making progress in their discussions over budget cuts with the White House. Cantor has been part of the negotiations to raise the debt ceiling, led by Vice President Joe Biden.
Cantor said the negotiations have included "significant, substantive discussions surrounding these very complex programs we're looking to cut and reform" and that there is "movement towards coalescing around trillions of dollars in cuts."
