Unemployment rises to 8.2%

June 1, 2012, 9:43 AM
Republicans Assail Obama in Wake of Disappointing Jobs Report

By MICHAEL D. SHEAR
Republicans quickly seized on Friday’s disappointing jobs report as fresh evidence of what they say are President Obama’s “job-killing” policies and further proof of the need for a new occupant in the White House next year.

The United States economy added only 69,000 private sector jobs in May, the lowest amount in a year. The unemployment rate, which had been heading lower over the last several months, ticked back up to 8.2 percent from 8.1 percent a month earlier.

For Mr. Obama, who faces re-election in less than six months, the report suggests that the economic fortunes of the country are headed in a direction that will task his campaign. The sagging recovery could complicate his efforts to convince voters to give him another four years.

Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee, called the report “devastating news for American workers and American families” and mocked the president’s campaign slogan, “forward,” saying that the country has been moving backward under the president’s policies.

“This week has seen a cascade of one bad piece of economic news after another,” Mr. Romney said in a statement. “Slowing G.D.P. growth, plunging consumer confidence, an increase in unemployment claims, and now another dismal jobs report all stand as a harsh indictment of the President’s handling of the economy.”

Mr. Obama’s campaign has been trying for weeks to challenge Mr. Romney’s claim of having been a job creator during his time at Bain Capital, a private equity firm, and later as governor of Massachusetts. But the tepid job growth in the country for the last two months will likely fuel Mr. Romney’s aggressive retort about the current economic situation during Mr. Obama tenure.

Top advisers from both sides have said the economy will be the primary topic of interest during the presidential campaign. But Republicans would like to present the decision as a referendum on Mr. Obama’s record in office. The jobs report on Friday provides Mr. Romney new political ammunition in that effort.

House Speaker John A. Boehner called the economic situation in the country “the sad new normal” and blamed it on Mr. Obama. But he said Americans don’t have to accept the situation if they vote for Republicans in the fall.

“Republicans have a Plan for America’s Job Creators designed to remove the government barriers holding back economic growth and hurting job creation,” he said.

In a news conference at the Capitol Friday morning, Mr. Boehner and Republican lawmakers chastised the president and his Democratic allies in the Congress for failing to pass legislation the Republicans said would create jobs.

“It’s clear that the policies that we have seen are not working,” Mr. Boehner said. “We’ve passed over 30 bills that are sitting over in the Senate. It’s time for us to change course and have real policies that will put Americans back to work.”

Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the majority leader, said the jobs numbers “are pathetic” and said “I think under the right leadership we can do better.”

Mr. Obama is traveling to Minnesota on Friday afternoon where he is expected to call on Congress to pass his “to do list” of policies that would help create jobs. Asked about the trip, Mr. Boehner mocked it as a campaign trip that won’t accomplish anything.

“Instead of a campaign speech, the president might want to engage with Republicans and Democrats here on Capitol Hill,” Mr. Boehner said. “The president ought to get out of the badmitten game and get into the rugby game that’s right in front of him.”

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012 ... bs-report/