Filling out an application while standing in line at a job fair in Detroit Wednesday. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
| Associated Press | The United States is likely to average 95,000 more jobs each month this year, while personal savings will remain high as credit remains tight, according to a White House report released Thursday.
The Council of Economic Advisers also trumpeted the $787 billion economic stimulus package, which it said has saved or created about 2 million jobs. |
See also • First time jobless claims fall more than expected |
In a message to Congress, President Barack Obama pointed out that the economy he inherited was losing 700,000 jobs each month.
“I can report that over the past year, this work has begun. In the coming year, this work continues,” Obama said in a letter he sent to the Capitol attached to his economic update to lawmakers. “But to understand where we must go in the next year and beyond, it is important to remember where we began one year ago.”
Casting its first year as positive, the administration’s 462-page report served as a summary of its logic and a pitch for Obama’s future agenda.
Recognizing voters were likely to hold Obama to account for the economy, the White House team cast blame on their predecessors and unpopular Wall Street bankers.
“I think there’s just no way to understate how huge the economic challenges facing the country have been this past year,” said Christina Romer, head the Council of Economic Advisers. “So everything obviously from the financial crisis, the terrible recession, but the longer-run problems — the stagnating middle-class incomes, soaring health care costs, the failure to invest in education, innovation, clean energy — we certainly inherited an economy with a number of economic problems.”
It’s not clear whether the it-didn’t-break-on-my-watch message would resonate with voters. Republicans were quick to describe the document as propaganda masquerading as governing.
“The Obama administration’s report is full of blame for the policies of years past, praise for its own failed policies of the past year and promises about their ideological agenda to grow government,” said Republican House Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia.
“Instead of praising themselves and blaming others, a greater focus on small businesses and smart solutions to reduce uncertainty and create jobs would be welcomed and is long overdue,” Cantor said.
Indeed, even adding an average of 95,000 jobs each month, unemployment is likely to remain around 10 percent through this year and not fall below 6 percent until 2015. And while Americans are likely to save more for big-ticket items such as homes or cars, it means a slower recovery for a nation that has lost 8.4 million net jobs since this recession began in December 2007.
Obama’s economic report predicts the economy could grow at a rate of 2.5 percent, in line with what the administration’s economists predicted last year.
Mark Zandi, founder of Moody’s Economy.com and a frequent adviser to lawmakers, said the White House economic projections track his own. A jobs bill worth $100 billion to $150 billion, he said, would accelerate a decrease in unemployment.
That also lines up with a bipartisan Senate proposal that promises to add 80,000 to 180,000 jobs over a year.
“If we go back into recession it will be very difficult to get out of it,” said Zandi, who advised Obama’s rival, John McCain, in the 2008 presidential election.
It will be even tougher if Americans continue to save at high rates – somewhere in the 4 percent to 7 percent range — as the White House report predicts they will until the financial services sector eases lending.
The report put it more bluntly: “A full economic recovery is unlikely until and unless the financial system is repaired.”
That pressures Congress to take action on the regulatory changes Obama has pushed to address weaknesses in the financial system that led to the 2008 financial crisis. The legislation aims to increase consumer protections on loans and credit cards, add restrictions to previously unregulated financial products and find ways to dismantle failing firms without resorting to taxpayer bailouts.
Associated Press writer Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to this report.
SO if you do BHO’s math it only cost us 3.9 million per job so the new plan will create about 59 thousand jobs at that ROI. Great jobs that increase the debt, require more taxes to fund because they are GOVERNMENT jobs, which are great if you have one but pathedic if you’re paying for it. It will be so great to be like Europe well adjusted to massive unemployement, third rate health care, FYI they still pay its not really free and they wait until one of those GOVERNMANT job says they can see a doctor. This will be great send in the GRENN POLICE PLEASE!
Believe nothing that comes from the lips of the empty suit and his army of swaggering syncophants that follow him around and kiss his backside, like the media. He has yet to deliver on anything and most likely never will. We will have to take care of it ourselves in 2010 and then in 2012.
I agree with roundlaketon. Additionally, we should get rid of all politicians and starting from the President – out of office means no health insurance and no perks for any Govt. official
Mr. President, You’re relying on an old and tired tactic sir. The American Public has heard this song before. I had really hoped that you had turned the corner at the State of the Union address, but it doesn’t appear to be the case. You need to take a lesson from your predecessors sir, and TAKE THE BULL BY THE HORNS!
True leaders are needed in these tough times and true leaders do not keep whining about the “mess” that they’ve inherited. True leaders sail into their problems with force and gusto and stay true to their course. Mr. President, you need to do this too. You need to control both sides of Congress and work towards getting your programs implemented. You may be a one term president sir, but at least the American people will admire you for your resolve. Continuing to blame others is a cowards way out sir. By failing to take ownership of the problem, you will never take ownership of the solution.
It is hard for me to believe in our government these days sir, because our governemnt on all levels is lacking in ethics, vision and leadership. We need someone that we can look upto, someone that we can trust. It’s been a year sir, and the hope for change, and the promise of a better tomorrow that comes with it, is fading fast. Take back the presidency sir, be a leader.
Does anyone actually believe a word this con man says anymore? Obama just makes it up as he goes along.
Remember how the $800 billion of our money was going to keep unemployment under 8 percent? He lies.
It’s no wonder polls shows Americans turning against Obama in droves.
If you are adding 95,000 jobs a month what is being done in the private sector to retain jobs in industry and more yet teachers? Shouldn’t the money be used to retain the teachers that will be loosing their jobs due to loss of tax revenue? And finally the private sector other than banks and auto makers? How are you going to retain the jobs? I’m curious!!!!!
Really now, what type of jobs. Government jobs or just jobs that depend on big government?
All the numbers that the chosen has given us before have all been lies. Why would anyone believe him now?
More fabricated nonsense from Obama.
This is why Obama only leads a generic Republican candidate by 2 percentage points in a potential 2012 match up, according to a new Gallup poll out today that also shows a continued drift of independents from Democrats.
Obama leads 44 percent to 42 percent, a statistical dead heat, against a nameless Republican, according to the survey of 1,025 adults nationwide.
November can’t come soon enough to get Congress out of Pelosi and Reid’s hands. Then on to 2012 to replace Obama.
In Marxist hypothesis, it is the intermediary state between Capitalism and Communism. I have alot of kinfolk in Europe living under Socialist regimes now and some of whom were under Communism previously. I work for a European company and work with individuals day-by-day who have lasted under said organizations for their whole lives. I know damn well what it is, and I have no desire to live under that kind of regime. I would sooner oppose you in the streets then to live as they do.
The loans suppose to be useful for people, which would like to start their organization. As a fact, it is comfortable to receive a student loan.