While Mitt Romney continued to criticize President Obama’s job growth strategy, it seems when he was governor of Massachusetts, Romney wanted a little more breathing room on job creation, too.
American Bridge, a Democratic research group, unearthed a video (above) of Gov. Romney responding defensively to a reporter’s question in 2006 on lackluster job growth.
“If you are going to suggest to me that somehow the day I got elected, somehow jobs should immediately turn around, well that would be silly,” Romney said. “It takes a while to get things turned around. We were in a recession, we were losing jobs every month. We’ve turned around and since the turnaround we’ve added 50,000 jobs. That’s progress.”
Sound similar to the refrain used by the Obama administration?
President Obama was elected to the White House during the worst recession since the Great Depression. Companies were going under and the unemployment rate shot upward. Since then, the unemployment has fallen from a high of 10% to hover at 8.2% today. That figure and today’s lackluster jobs report, though, are not progressing as quickly as anyone would like, including the president.
The president and his team frequently acknowledge “there is more to do” on the economy.
Romney addressed the jobs report at a press conference in New Hampshire where he chided the president for not doing enough to stimulate the economy.
“The president’s policies clearly have not been successful,” a subdued Romney charged, saying the 8.2% unemployment was “unacceptable,” and the Obama need to “take responsibility for it.” President Obama, speaking from a campaign stop in Poland, Ohio, Friday, admitted that “we’ve got to grow the economy faster and we’ve got to put people back to work.” He called the jobs report a “step in the right direction,” sounding a similar refrain to his past comments. Yet, the president cautioned that the squandering of upwards mobility in America and economic hardship “didn’t happen overnight, so we’re not going to reverse it over night.” He laid the blame for stalled progress at Congress’ feet once again charging legislators with a stalemate that isn’t allowing his jobs plan through.
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