For months he had warned it was coming but that didn’t ease the political shock waves for President Obama when unemployment topped 10 percent.
A year after his election Obama finds it increasingly difficult to blame the sour economy on George W. Bush or offer reassurances that jobless Americans will soon find work.
Recommended Stories
Never mind that the economy itself grew in the last quarter, that the recession by most accounts is over and that the number of jobs lost in October was less than one-third the number of job losses at the start of his presidency.
At 10.2 percent, the October unemployment climbed to chart-topping heights unseen in more than a quarter century. The bottom line is that more than 15 million Americans are out of work and 3.5 million lost their jobs while Obama was president. Expected or not, this is Obama’s new reality.
“I won’t let up until the Americans who want to find work can find work, and until all Americans can earn enough to raise their families and keep their businesses open,” the president said Friday.
That’s a hopeful promise but not very realistic.
And it shows that, for the time being, action to tackle record budget deficits will simply have to wait.
Obama, appearing at the White House Rose Garden on Friday three hours after the jobless numbers were made public, said his administration was looking at additional spending for roads and bridges and energy efficient buildings. Additional tax cuts for businesses and steps to increase credit for small businesses were also on the bill.
Many economists predict the jobless rate will rise again, peaking at 10.5 percent sometime next year before employment makes a turnaround in the spring. That still means unemployment will remain high for some time. The administration’s own projections still see unemployment at 8 percent by the end of 2011.
Politically, Democrats are staring at some damage — and the fear of unemployment — themselves. Exit polls Tuesday in the New Jersey and Virginia GOP victories showed that the economy was the top issue in the minds of voters. And national public opinion surveys show that a majority of the public doesn’t believe Obama’s economic policies are working.
Since the start of the recession in December 2007, 7.3 million Americans have lost their jobs and key sectors — construction, manufacturing and retail trade — are still seeing significant declines.
“When we first came into office, our immediate goal was to stop the free fall that caused our economy to shrink at an alarming rate,” Obama said. “We’ve succeeded in achieving that goal, as our economy grew last quarter for the first time in a year.”
But Obama has already taken ownership of the economy.
Republicans, he noted wryly during a July speech in Michigan, were eager to blame him for the economy.
“That’s fine,” he added, “Give it to me!”
Four months later, it would be hard to give it back.
