For the second straight month, President Obama is spinning pathetically weak job data as “good news.” Who is he kidding?
The economy added a measly 115,000 jobs in April. At that poky rate, we wouldn’t fully bounce back from the Great Recession until the presidential election in 2016.
And the only reason unemployment inched down to 8.1% was that another 342,000 Americans gave up looking for jobs and dropped out of the workforce completely. Miserable.
Obama can’t sugarcoat an economy that has limped along badly on his watch, consigning 12.5 million Americans to unemployment.
The major crisis and downturn that began in 2008 are no excuse for such a lethargic recovery.
And as Obama asks for a second term, what is his domestic economic agenda? Just campaign talking points about lowering college loan rates, posturing against an alleged war on women and flogging a Buffett Rule that would barely put a dent in skyrocketing deficits.
Republicans in Congress are equally useless — hunkered down in partisan warfare unable to compromise on tax reform, debt reduction, immigration reform or infrastructure investments.
The closest thing they have to a game plan is waiting for Mitt Romney to take the oath of office.
Another depressing statistic: The nation’s companies are generating more output than before the recession started — suggesting the 5 million workers they shed have become redundant. Who in Washington has an answer for that?
Unemployed Americans desperate to support their families deserve action. They deserve leadership. They deserve jobs.
