Political Quotes

“Mr. President, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released a new employment report last week for the month of January with some good news: more jobs created in the private sector than had been projected and unemployment dropped to 8.3 percent. President Obama has been taking a victory lap and touted the jobs report as a sign that his economic policies are working. But it reminds me of the two fleas on the back of the chariot in Stephen Leacock's famous fable. They look behind them and say: My, what a fine cloud of dust we've kicked up. It could be in the 2\1/2\ years since the great recession technically ended and the 3 years since the passage of the stimulus bill that the President promised would keep unemployment below 8 percent, that whatever recovery we have had is not necessarily the result of the President's policies. Why has unemployment remained above 8 percent for the last 35 months? Why are there more unemployed today than when President Obama took office? Is it more likely that some people are finding work in spite of and not because of President Obama's policies? Today I would like to speak about that for a few minutes and try to put these numbers into perspective. The obvious point, of course, is that we still have a long way to go before anyone can claim that we have an economic success story. Let's start with the recovery itself. The fact is, this has been the weakest recovery since the Great Depression.…”