Friday, June 3, 2011

Terrible job news

From the Financial Times (UK):
       
          US jobs data escalate fears of double dip

The US economy added just 54,000 new jobs in May, confirming fears that the recovery has hit a soft patch as the unemployment rate ticked up to 9.1 per cent.

Non-farm payrolls rose far less than the 165,000 that economists polled by Bloomberg had expected and were well below the average 220,000 gain in the previous three months, the US labour department said.

The unemployment rate rose by a tenth of a point from 9 per cent in April, disappointing hopes that it would fall back to 8.9 per cent, but the increase was due to an expanding labour pool as more Americans searched for jobs. Out of a workforce of 153.7 million, 13.9 million people are unemployed.

"Are you talkin' to me?"

"I got some bad ideas in my head!"

During yesterday's dismal White House budget meeting, Paul Ryan complained to the President about the "demagogy" of describing as  "vouchers" Ryan's plan to end Medicare in favor of...uh...vouchers. 

Then there was this zinger.

"We didn't create this mess," a Republican Congressman reportedly told Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner

Ryan's whining aside, on the larger issue of who created "this mess" - of course, they did.  The Republicans advocated for the policies and/or oversaw the calamities generating the red ink that's scaring voters.

"We didn't create this mess - blame Obama!" (or Medicare) are the Big Lies of the GOP's phony deficit hysteria and a shameless evasion of responsibility.