Obama Does Not Know if Bad Economic News is a Trend – DUH!

June 9, 2011 04:50


Obama admitted Tuesday that he did not know if the May economic numbers were a bump in the road or a more serious problem with a slow growing economy. He added that he was not worried that this was a second recession and asked that Americans “not panic.”

From The Americano

For the first time since he became president, Barack Obama admitted Tuesday that he did not know if the May economic numbers were a bump in the road or a more serious problem with a slow growing economy. He added that he was not worried that this was a second recession and asked that Americans “not panic.”

In an appearance with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Obama spoke about the new economic troubles in detail for the first time since a report late last week showed job growth had slowed sharply in May. He tried to reassure Americans worried about high unemployment and expensive gas that the nation is on a slow, if not steady, path to recovery.

“I am concerned about the fact that the recovery that we’re on is not producing jobs as quickly as I want it to happen,” Obama said. “We don’t yet know whether this is a one-month episode or a longer trend.”

According to Associated Press, either way, there appears to be little Washington can do about it.

AP added that Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke, speaking in Atlanta also on Tuesday, acknowledged the economy has lost momentum but said nothing to suggest the Fed was about to take any bold new action to further shore it up.

One thing is certain. With lawmakers fighting over the nation’s budget deficit and long-term debt, there is no political appetite for a second major federal stimulus bill like the one passed by Congress in 2009.

Seventeen months before the election, unemployment was 9.1 percent. When Obama took office, it was 7.8 percent. Most economists think the rate will be above 8 percent at election time next year. Since World War II, no president has been re-elected with unemployment higher than 7.2 percent.

AP detailed the latest figures and what they meant. Tuesday brought the latest in a stream of downbeat economic news, a government report that said businesses advertised fewer job openings in April than in March. There were 4.6 unemployed people, on average, for each available job in April. In a healthy economy, the ratio is more like 2-to-1.

Even if all the open positions were filled, 10.7 million people would still be unemployed. That compares with 7.7 million who were unemployed when the recession began in December 2007. The recession ended in June 2009.

Obama’s early Republican presidential challengers have seized on the economy to try to take advantage. One of them, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, accused Obama on Tuesday of being satisfied with a second-rate economy “produced by his third-rate policies.”

The former Minnesota governor also presented an economic recovery plan that proposed cutting taxes on business by more than half and simplifying the tax code to just three tiers, with a top marginal rate for individuals of 25 percent. The present top marginal rate is 35 percent. Pawlenty would also eliminate taxes on capital gains.

The Americano– /Agencies



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