Romney blasts ?terrible? US jobs data

Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney slammed “terrible” US jobs report despite an unemployment rate dip.

|||

Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney slammed Friday's “terrible” US jobs report despite an unemployment rate dip, saying the economy should be creating four times more jobs than the current pace.

“This is way off from what should happen in a normal recovery,” the presumptive Republican nominee told Fox News, saying the country be creating half a million jobs a month instead of the paltry 115,000 jobs that the Labor Department said were created in April.

“It's a terrible and very disappointing report this morning. Clearly, the American people are wondering why this recovery isn't happening faster.”

The new data showed a dip in the unemployment rate from 8.2 percent to 8.1 percent, the lowest level since Obama took office in January 2009, but it marked a slowdown in job creation.

“We seem to be slowing down, not speeding up. This is not progress,” Romney said.

Obama makes his first official re-election campaign foray on Saturday, heading to the battleground states of Ohio and Virginia, while Romney is in the swing state of Pennsylvania on Friday.

Romney issued an open letter to Obama Friday on the eve of the president's trip to the Midwest.

“Welcome to Ohio. I have a simple question for you: Where are the jobs?” Romney wrote in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, as he blasted Obama for failing to get the unemployment rate south of 8.0 percent.

“I recognize, of course, as do all Americans, that you inherited an economic crisis. But you've now had three years to turn things around,” he wrote.

“Mr. President, forgive me for being blunt, but when it comes to economic affairs, you're out of your depth.”

Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts and millionaire investor and businessman, cited his “more than two decades working in the private sector, starting new businesses and turning around failing ones,” as ample qualification for improving the economy.

“Undoing the damage you've done will be a daunting challenge. But I've learned a thing or two about how government policies can kill private investment and stifle job creation and I have a plan to get government out of the way.”

Speaker of the House John Boehner, in a statement criticizing the April jobs data, accused Obama of focusing on distractions instead of tackling issues that hit every American's pocketbook, like high gas prices.

“Rather than address these challenges, President Obama has wasted time trying to distract the American people with gimmicks like the Buffett tax hike (on millionaires) and fake fights over noncontroversial issues,” Boehner said.

“Election-year gimmicks might win the president some votes but they won't create American jobs.” - Sapa-AFP

Source: http://www.iol.co.za/romney-blasts-terrible-us-jobs-data-1.1289685

Arsenal Dmitry Medvedev Vladimir Putin War crimes Joey Barton Petrol prices