Anticipating Friday’s jobs report, The Hill reported that, “the Obama administration downgraded its forecast for economic growth Thursday, predicting turmoil in the economy will likely keep unemployment above 9 percent through next year’s election.” ABOVE 9%! And this morning’s jobs report confirmed that dismal forecast: ZERO jobs created in August. Nada. Zilch. Business Insider describes this “big fat goose-egg” as “much worse than the 68K that was expected by analysts.” And the Heritage Foundation paints a broader picture:
President Obama enters this Labor Day weekend with a serious problem on his hands. For all intents and purposes, the economy appears to be stuck in neutral, with news out today that the U.S. economy created a grand total of zero jobs in August. This followed two months of near zero growth. Not surprisingly then, the unemployment rate in August remained at 9.1 percent, virtually unchanged since April. In fact, it was completely unchanged, and for the first time since 1945, no new jobs were created – Zero.
Reacting to the disastrous jobs report, House Speaker John Boehner asserted that private-sector job growth “continues to be undermined by the triple threat of higher taxes, more failed ‘stimulus’ spending and excessive federal regulations. Together, these Washington policies have created a fog of uncertainty that’s left small businesses unable to hire and American families worried about the future." He’s absolutely right, and we’ve seen it in the Democrat’s push for more taxes in the debt debate, with calls for even more Keynesian spending, and with the continuous barrage of regulations created through executive fiat and enforced by the DoJ, affecting any and all industry, from Gibson to AT&T.
This isn’t improvement, and this isn’t hope and change. This isn’t something that we can withstand for another year, much less 4 more after that. As The Hill article we began with makes the case, “The unemployment rate is considered to be one of the most important factors in presidential elections, so if the White House’s assessment holds, President Obama is in for one of the toughest reelection fights in memory.”
