RNC's Reince Priebus Slams Obama On the Economy

by John M. Curtis
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Copyright July 8, 2012
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                Hammering President Barack Obama on the economy, 40-year-old Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus asked voters to “Fire Obama and hire Romney.”  Blasting Obama for the anemic Labor Department’s June jobs report, Priebus focused the GOP on where its gotten the most mileage:  On the sluggish economy.  Every time the economy sputters, voters blame the home team, pointing fingers at Obama.  “There are almost a half a million more people out of work today than four years ago,” Priebus preached to the choir on “Fox News Sunday,” forgetting that President Barack Obama was not yet in office.  Priebus doesn’t mention that when the historic meltdown took place in Dec. 2007 under former President George W. Bush, the economy was shedding over 200,000 jobs a month, eventually losing 8 million jobs by Feb. 2010 when things bottomed out.

            Before Barack placed his left hand on the bible, the GOP had already pinned the nation’s historic economic meltdown on him.  Republicans, still smarting from a landslide defeat, made sure that no one remembered who was president at the time of the biggest economic calamity since the Great Depression.  Former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan, a Reagan appointee, called the 2007-08 meltdown one of the five biggest economic panics in the nation’s history, predicting recovery could take years.  Nobel Prize-winning Columbia University economist Joseph I. Stiglitz blamed the recession on two costly foreign wars, depleting the U.S. Treasury and preventing economic growth.  While blaming Obama for the U.S. economic mess, Priebus doesn’t mention the Dow Jones Industrials was at 8,000 when Obama took office, now standing at 12, 937, a whopping 70% increase.

            Priebus must convince voters that the economy is doing worse than when Obama took office.  Citing June’s Labor Department report, Priebus blasted Obama for adding only 80,000 private sector jobs, far less than the 150,000-200,000 jobs needed to reverse the 8.2% unemployment rate.  When Obama took office the nation was shedding about 200,000 jobs a month under Bush.  GOP officials hope to blame Obama for today’s sluggish growth, when, in reality, the economy’s growing, not contracting.  Priebus doesn’t mention that Romney’s economic plan calls for shrinking the federal workforce, potentially throwing thousands of government workers into unemployment.  Speaking at a campaign stop in Poland, Ohio, Obama said the 80,000 jobs gain was “a step in the right direction,” especially for unemployed autoworkers watching Detroit make a spectacular comeback with government help.

            Autoworkers in the upper Midwest know that without the government bailouts of General Motors and Chrysler, the auto industry wouldn’t be in its current recovery mode, selling cars and adding more workers.  Priebus and the RNC rail against Obama’s $787 billion bailout that saved the auto industry but say nothing about Bush’s $ 700 billion bailout that saved the nation’s biggest banks and insurance companies.  Calling the June jobs report  “another kick in the gut,” Romney offers no concrete plan to do things differently.  Romney doesn’t want voters to know that he plans a federal hiring freeze and layoffs, something that hurts the nation’s unemployment rate.  Mitt knows that the federal government is the nation’s biggest employer.  Any rollback in federal jobs would send the jobs market in reverse.  Given the shape of the economy, GOP officials know that jobs are Obama’s Achilles heal.

            Voters in the battleground state of Ohio know that their neighbors are beginning to return to work in the auto industry.  GM’s rise from the ashes, with the help of federal bailouts, represents one of the biggest corporate turnarounds in U.S. history.   Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) insists what Obama is doing “is not working,” despite never criticizing Bush when his economic policies sent the economy spiraling into recession.  McConnell says that Obama’s policies are not boosting payrolls, despite the 4.3 million jobs added since March 2010.  What McConnell, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Priebus don’t want voters to know is that it’s a growing stock market that eventually adds to payrolls.  On that note, Obama has done well to keep Wall Street moving forward.  McConnell knows that Wall Street calls the shots when it comes to adding corporate jobs.

            Republicans must sell voters on the idea that only returning to GOP policies can grow the economy.  “It takes a while to dig out of that hole,” said former White House spokesman and campaign aid Robert Gibbs, asking voters to keep things in perspective.  Greenspan said it would take years to cement economic recovery after the 2007-08 economic meltdown.  When you consider the potential growth in the medical and pharmaceutical industry from the rollout of Obamacare, the country can expect future robust jobs growth.  Opposing Obamacare as a political issue, the GOP forgot the likely benefits to the jobs market, where thousands of new health care jobs are expected in every part of the country.  While it’s tempting to play politics with the economy, Obama’s policies have grown the stock market, added jobs and created conditions for future economic growth.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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