QUOTE OF THE DAY…. This morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the best monthly jobs report in four years. A total of 290,000 jobs were created in April — easily the strongest performance since the start of the Great Recession — and job creation in American manufacturing saw its biggest jump in 12 years.
Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), chairman of the House Republican Conference, responded with a fascinating, 96-word statement.
“These are difficult times for America’s families and today’s unemployment report delivers even more bad news. Democrats continue to advance a liberal agenda that is doing more harm than good. The Democrat [sic] policies of taxing, spending and bailouts are having a chilling effect on job creators across the country.
“The American people want Washington to enact policies that will help create jobs. House Republicans are ready to work on common sense solutions that will put people back to work, starting with fast-acting tax relief for working families and small businesses and fiscal discipline here in Washington.”
Up is down, black is white, and good news is “bad news.”
I’m not even sure what Pence is trying to say when it comes to policy. The government recovery efforts that rescued the economy are “having a chilling effect”? How’s that, exactly?
As for what Pence would prefer to do differently, he wants more “tax relief.” He may not remember this — it was way back last year — but a third of the stimulus package was a middle-class tax cut. Republicans voted against it.
And, we now know, it was also the least stimulative aspect of the Recovery Act.
But details aside, there’s just something unseemly about Republican leaders booing good news. I know a stronger economy interferes with their election plans, but basic patriotism and concern for their fellow Americans should give Pence pause before describing a heartening jobs report as “more bad news.”
