Michele Bachmann was the first Republican presidential candidate to release a statement earlier today on the latest unemployment numbers. In its bleak jobs report, the Labor Department reported this morning that the U.S. economy created just 18,000 new jobs last month — far below the 80,000-125,000 predicted by economists. It was weakest month for job creation in nine months as the nation’s unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent, up from 9.1 percent in May.
“Today’s unemployment report is another stark reminder of the failure of President Obama’s economic policies,” said Bachmann. “The President promised if we passed the massive stimulus package that unemployment wouldn’t go above 8 percent, we are now at 9.2 percent. Unfortunately, millions of Americans are suffering today as a result of the president’s broken promise and his policy of attempting to create jobs through massive government spending that has added over 35 percent to our national debt.
“Amidst this economic freefall,” continued the Minnesota congresswoman, “it should not be lost that the architect of the President’s failed economic policies, Timothy Geithner, will head for the door after he attempts to cement the President’s legacy of massive spending and debt by raising the debt limit another $2.4 trillion dollars. We can only hope that the President will be right behind him after the next election.”
In his statement headlined “The Audacity of Indifference,” former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney castigated President Obama’s top White House adviser, David Plouffe, for suggesting earlier this week that the average American doesn’t care about unemployment rates or even monthly jobs numbers.
“If David Plouffe were working for me, I would fire him and then he could experience firsthand the pain of unemployment,” said Romney. “His comments are an insult to the more than 20 million people who are out of work, underemployed or who have simply stopped looking for jobs. With their cavalier attitude about the economy, the White House has turned the audacity of hope into the audacity of indifference.”
Minnesota’s Tim Pawlenty said that the administration’s economic policies aren’t creating the necessary jobs and that the country will continue to experience “anemic growth and disappointing job creation so long as Barack Obama is president.”
“Rising unemployment rates and extremely anemic job creation are not acceptable,” said former Utah Gov. Jon Hunstman. “Even in great hardship, the American people have been extraordinarily patient in waiting for the better and brighter times promised to them by this Administration. Their patience has rightly worn thin. We need free-market, pro-growth policies to spark a wave of job growth – the same policies we implemented in Utah to make it the fastest-growing state in the nation. America needs new leadership to turn our country around.”
“This is demonstrably and empirically the worst economic ‘recovery’ in American history,” said Herman Cain, the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza. As dismal as they are, today’s jobless numbers “do not even include those who have simply given up on finding work or are underemployed, scraping to get by,” added Cain, who once worked as a business analyst for Coca-Cola.
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich responded to today’s bleak jobs report with a video on his campaign website. “We know that with the right kind of policies, we can turn around the economy with remarkable speed,” Gingrich says in the video. “With those kinds of changes, once again, we can get America back on the right track … solving most of the problems that the Obama administration seems incapable of doing.”
Rick Santorum, struggling to emerge from his party’s crowded second-tier, also chimed in. “This morning’s jobs report is one more sign that the current Administration’s policies are impeding economic growth in America,” said the former Pennsylvania senator who outlined his economic plan earlier this week in Iowa.
Gary Johnson, the libertarian-leaning ex-governor of New Mexico, responded to today’s unsettling economic news by saying that “it’s time for Washington to stop fiddling while Rome is burning.”
“With a June unemployment rate of 9.2% and the fewest new jobs added in nine months, it’s time for Washington to stop fiddling while Rome is burning," said former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson.
Johnson, 58, proposed an immediate three-step program to get the economy moving. Johnson’s plan includes eliminating the corporate income tax; cutting spending immediately by $300 billion to offset the temporary loss of revenue; and directing all federal agencies to adopt regulations that meet a standard of creating certainty for employers while removing existing obstacles to job creation in the private sector.
“We’ve tried government ‘stimulus’ – all it did was bankrupt us. We’ve heard a lot of talk about cutting spending and reducing job-killing debt, but it hasn’t happened. And now we’re watching as our leaders quibble over tax loopholes and long-term spending reductions that may or may not actually happen,” said Johnson.
“Americans can’t wait any longer for the hand-wringing to produce results,” added the entrepreneur and former two-term governor.
Long-shot candidate Thaddeus McCotter of Michigan used today’s unemployment numbers to take a swipe at his party’s frontrunner, tying Romney to the failed policies of the Obama administration.
“To Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney’s big government and bailout banks, this is an economic statistic,” said McCotter, who announced his low-key candidacy last Saturday. “To Main Street, this is real suffering. This must and will end.”
Buddy Roemer, the former governor of Louisiana, is expected to address the economy when announcing his candidacy tomorrow afternoon at a rally at the Bossier Civic Center in Bossier City.
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