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GOP Slams Obama For Saying Private Sector's 'Doing Fine'
NPR
Frank James
6/8/2012
Excerpt:
— Updated at 4:20 pm ET. See end of (NPR original) post —
"President Obama opened himself up to withering Republican attacks Friday via an off-hand statement he made in a brief White House news conference.
Obama seemed to suggest that matters were going swimmingly for the private-sector part of the economy and that it was the reduction of government jobs that was the real problem.
Asked to respond to Republican charges that he was blaming Europe's economic policies for the alleged failure of his own domestic economic policies, Obama said:
Screech!!! As soon as the president uttered those words, it was obvious he and his campaign would be hearing this line repeated back at them for a while, and not in a good way.
Anyway, Obama continued, apparently oblivious to the troubles he had created for himself, adding context to his remarks.
The way many voters are feeling about public employees these days, that's not necessarily an argument likely to get a lot of sympathy. In any event, it was completely overshadowed by his "the private sector is doing fine" comment.
Obama was right that the private sector has added jobs throughout the recovery and that it has been the continual shedding of jobs by state and local governments that has helped to restrain to keep job growth.
Even so, progress in private sector jobs has cooled significantly in the last two months, with 87,000 non-government jobs created in April and 82,000 created in May. Many people wouldn't describe those numbers as "fine."
Republicans were quick to pounce.
At a Capitol Hill availability with journalists, the first words out of House Speaker John Boehner's mouth were:
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View the complete article at:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolit...ors-doing-fine
NPR
Frank James
6/8/2012
Excerpt:
— Updated at 4:20 pm ET. See end of (NPR original) post —
"President Obama opened himself up to withering Republican attacks Friday via an off-hand statement he made in a brief White House news conference.
Obama seemed to suggest that matters were going swimmingly for the private-sector part of the economy and that it was the reduction of government jobs that was the real problem.
Asked to respond to Republican charges that he was blaming Europe's economic policies for the alleged failure of his own domestic economic policies, Obama said:
"As I've said, we created 4.3 million jobs over the last two (years), 27 months, over 800,000 just this year alone. The private sector is doing fine."
- (bold and underline emphasis added)Screech!!! As soon as the president uttered those words, it was obvious he and his campaign would be hearing this line repeated back at them for a while, and not in a good way.
Anyway, Obama continued, apparently oblivious to the troubles he had created for himself, adding context to his remarks.
"Where we're seeing weakness in our economy have (sic) to do with the state and local government, often times cuts initiated by governors or mayors who are not getting the kind of help that they have in the past from the federal government. And who don't have the same kind of flexibility as the federal government in dealing with fewer revenues coming in."
The way many voters are feeling about public employees these days, that's not necessarily an argument likely to get a lot of sympathy. In any event, it was completely overshadowed by his "the private sector is doing fine" comment.
Obama was right that the private sector has added jobs throughout the recovery and that it has been the continual shedding of jobs by state and local governments that has helped to restrain to keep job growth.
Even so, progress in private sector jobs has cooled significantly in the last two months, with 87,000 non-government jobs created in April and 82,000 created in May. Many people wouldn't describe those numbers as "fine."
Republicans were quick to pounce.
At a Capitol Hill availability with journalists, the first words out of House Speaker John Boehner's mouth were:
"Mr. President, I used to run a small business. And, Mr. President, take it from me, the private sector is not doing well."
...........................................
View the complete article at:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolit...ors-doing-fine