The Obama Recovery Picks Up Steam – ‘Just Say No’ Boehner Tries to Claim Credit

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Since Republicans took control of Congress in January they have: (1) sought to repeal — but not replace — the Affordablle Care Act which the CBO says would add more than a trillion dollars to the national debt that Tea-Publicans claim to be concerned about; (2) sought to repeal the rights of women and subject their reproductive health decisions to government mandates and the "uterus police," exposing their "small government" stance for the lie that it is; and (3) proposed budget cuts to discretionary domestic spending that economists say will actually slow the economy and increase unemployment. (Update) Experts: GOP economics will hurt the economy, increase unemployment.

Republicans have not proposed a single job creation bill, let alone enacted one, that has created a single new job. Not one. Nada. Zip.

So naturally today the Weeper of the House, John "Crybaby" Boehner, tried to claim credit for the uptick in the February jobs report. Mr. "just say no" to every job creation proposal of the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress is now trying to take credit for their success. The man is a shameless liar.

Steve Benen at The Washington Monthly has the February jobs report:

After last month's terribly disappointing jobs numbers, those hoping for an economic recovery desperately wanted to see a stronger report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics this morning. Fortunately, we got one.

America's job engine has picked up some steam last month.

The nation's employers added 192,000 jobs on net in February, after having added just 63,000 jobs the previous month, the Labor Department reported on Friday.

The February number was about what economists had been forecasting.

"Economic recoveries can be like a snowball rolling down a hill, in that it takes time to get some momentum," said John Ryding, chief economist at RDQ Economics. "People hesitate until they feel that the recovery's durable enough, and then they have a tendency to jump in. Maybe we're finally getting to that jumping-in moment." 

The overall unemployment rate dropped to 8.9%, its lowest point in nearly two years. The 192,000 jobs created in February was the highest since last May.

Also note, the total would have been even higher had it not been for state and local budget cuts — the private sector added 222,000 jobs, but the public sector lost 30,000 jobs. Those were jobs that could have been saved were it not for conservative fiscal policies.

* * *

Just as encouraging, the totals from December and January were both revised upwards, with December's totals revised to 152,000, up from 121,000, and January's totals revised to 63,000 from 36,000.

From a purely political perspective, policymakers would ideally look at figures like these, and consider ways to keep the momentum going. Regrettably, congressional Republicans continue to fight for spending cuts that are projected to cost the U.S. economy 700,000 jobs. This morning's report should offer Washington a big hint: if we want more good news, the GOP plan needs to be rejected.

Once again, here's the homemade chart I run on the first Friday of every month, showing monthly job losses since the start of the Great Recession.

Jobs_feb11

Steve Benen continues at The Washington Monthly:

[I]n keeping with tradition, here's a slightly different chart — one showing just the private sector job market.

In January, while the public sector lost 30,000 jobs — the consequence of significant spending cuts — the private sector added 222,000 jobs. Given revised data for 2010, this is the 12th consecutive month of private-sector growth. [Before Republicans took control of Congress in January.]

More importantly, though, we're starting to see some real momentum. February's totals weren't just an improvement on recent reports, the new data shows that February was the best month in nearly a year, and the second-best private-sector job totals since the start of the recession in 2007.

* * *

With that in mind, here is a different homemade chart, showing monthly job losses/gains in the private sector since the start of the Great Recession. The image makes a distinction — red columns point to monthly job totals under the Bush administration, while blue columns point to job totals under the Obama administration.

 Privatejobs_feb11

Benen then turns his attention to that lying liar, John "Crybaby" Boehner. The Washington Monthly:

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said the job growth is welcome news, and sought to tie it to the extension of George W. Bush-era tax rates. […]

"Removing the uncertainty caused by those looming tax hikes provided much-needed relief for private-sector job creators in America," Boehner said in a statement. "Now we must build on it by eliminating the job-crushing uncertainty being caused by excessive spending, borrowing and regulating in Washington." 

Perhaps now would be a good time to note that conservative Republicans have been wrong about every major economic challenge for the last quarter-century. They said Reagan's tax increases in 1986 would hurt the economy, and the GOP was wrong. They said Clinton's economic policies would be a disaster, and the GOP was wrong. They said Bush's economic agenda would be fantastic, and the GOP was wrong. And they said Obama's recovery efforts would fail, and the GOP was wrong.

Now, Boehner says, just listen to conservative Republicans this time — and never mind the 700,000 projected job losses — and everything will be fine.

Why would anyone listen to this?

In Grown-Up Land, the economy started growing again in 2009, with the stimulus giving the economy a boost. We saw growth continue throughout 2010 — even after those rascally Democrats passed health care reform and Wall Street reform — while Republicans said Dems were killing the economy.

And now the economy is picking up steam, no thanks to the Republicans who created the mess in the first place, and the GOP suddenly thinks it has credibility on the subject.

Please.

To review, Republicans in the Bush era brought the global economy to the brink of catastrophic collapse; Obama and congressional Dems helped turn things around; and now those same Republicans whose policies failed want credit for Democratic successes.

Despite the recent uptick in jobs, the kind of robust job growth required to significantly bring the unemployment rate down in a hurry would require even stronger employment numbers. But with the new corporate business model of increasing profits, not jobs, see: Where are the jobs? Overseas of course (and you are subsidizing multi-national corporations to ship your job overseas), the economic recovery has been slower than at any time since the Great Depression.

Here is another chart. We want to see a steep "V" shaped recovery, signaling a quick end to the recession. Instead we are entrenched in a long and deep "U" shaped recovery that still has a long way to go to full recovery.

JobLossesAlignedFeb2011

Chart by Calculated Risk