Clinton: GOP has tried to keep jobless rate high

[meow2u3]

Source: AP via Yahoo!

PARMA, Ohio (AP) — Former President Bill Clinton says Republicans have tried to keep the nation's unemployment rate high for political gain.

Campaigning in Ohio for President Barack Obama, Clinton says the GOP was "crushed" when the jobless rate fell to 7.8 percent last month. He says Republicans nearly managed to keep it above 8 percent "all the way to the election. But they failed."

Clinton didn't say specifically what he thought Republicans had done to try to keep unemployment above 8 percent.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/clinton-gop-tried-keep-jobless-rate-high-185305526--election.html

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The Big Dog put the blame on high unemployment right where the blame is due: squarely on the shoulders of the rethugs in Congress.

[patrice]

1. Of course they have & I'd bet they have no real interest in authentic entrepreneurship/competition.

[wordpix]

26. I suspect they're also keeping gas prices high - R$ made quite a deal of that in last debate

I wouldn't put it past R Big Oil and their puppet-creeps to do it on purpose

[sakabatou]

2. Of course they have

Their plan from the beginning was to make Obamam a one-term president. I wouldn't put it past them to make this so.

[jsr]

3. They've been praying for more people to lose their jobs

[BeyondGeography]

4. Bill is working his ass off

[Enrique]

5. Mitch McConnell

Asked what that "job" was, McConnell explained that "the single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president."

[Lasher]

12. We remember that but we are political junkies.

It would make a great campaign ad, with Clinton saying these same things followed by Yertle's infamous moment of honesty.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

6. Here's the full speech on C-Span...

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Parma

[Curmudgeoness]

7. I will say specifically what they are doing,

or at least what some of the Republican business people who I have talked to have said.

They claim that they will not hire more employees, even if they need them at the moment, as long as Obama is president. Their rationale for this is that they "don't know where things are headed", but they are definitely stating that it is the Obama presidency that is driving their decision.

However, let me say that I don't believe they will be able to keep this hiring freeze up much longer. Many of them are stretched as far as they can right now, and employees are rebelling against all the additional work. When Obama wins his second term, they will have to finally get their personnel needs filled.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

8. Tell it Big Dog!

This is the damn TRUTH!

[SaveAmerica]

9. Exhibit A: Romney calls big business CEOs, tells them to threaten employees

if they vote 'wrong' and make businesses go downhill. Letters and e-mails start showing up at those employees' in boxes. Could this same system have been in play keeping big businesses from hiring people these past 4 years? That's what' I've suspected at least.

[andym]

10. What they did was promote government austerity

which has caused a loss of jobs in the public sector....

[Auntie Bush]

11. I've been saying that for three years. No jobs...no Obama!

This recession has been deliberately prolonged in hopes of getting rid of Obama. HA! Their businesses suffered (didn't expand) and they're not going to get rid of Obama! Now let the hiring begin just as soon as they're convinced Romney is a loser.

[JDPriestly]

13. Clinton is right.

The Republicans made this huge hullabaloo over the healthcare reform bill. It really did not change nearly as much as you would have thought from the noise.

That distracted Americans so that Republicans could take over the House and stop programs that would have pushed the economy forward. Then Republicans, through their control in the Chamber of Commerce and business TV stations, discouraged business from expanding or hiring. It's really quite simple.

Are Republicans that hateful? Are their motives that sinister? Are they that power-hungry? Yes. This is the chance of a century for them to destroy the unions and the rights of ordinary people. Of course they take it. They are Republicans. What do you expect?

[FrenchieCat]

14. Republican Governors laid off thousands after thousands in their state.....

I read somewhere, that without those lay-offs, the Unemployment rate would be in the low 7%s!

[Skittles]

15. PREACH IT, BIG DOG

yes INDEED

[Rosa Luxemburg]

16. Thanks Bill, keep calling the GOP out

[FamilyMan]

17. Jobs Bill

Republicans have been blocking the Jobs Bill for starters

[nobodyspecial]

18. About time someone is saying this out loud

and it is true.

[DallasNE]

19. Is The Yahoo Writer Really That Dense?

In a word: Obstruction

[toby jo]

20. Corporate America has a record amount of money on their books

Yeah, they're holding onto it. I agree with the poster who said the game is 'we don't know what's going to happen'. This is what they say. I own a business, I talk to these people. They're holding out for a republican in control. 'It's my ball, play by my rules'. And what can we do, they have all the money?

If O wins they'll find some other way to be shitty.

[ronnie624]

21. And I would bet the vast majority are motivated primarily by racist bigotry. n/t

[hrmjustin]

22. Did someone finally say that out loud.

[libodem]

23. And keep the gas prices high

It is an outright seditous attempt to manipulate the economic conditions to the advantage of the "other" side.
Traitors.

[julian09]

27. They keep gas prices high so consumers will have less to spend on other goods to help economy.

Business is sitting on trillions and not hiring, banks holding back on lending to slow economy, they only have a few more weeks to hold back. This has to be said in next debate, the repugs have to be exposed for the obstruction of jobs and economy. People losing jobs, homes, health insurance with jobs. There are job s bill and farm bill waiting in house to pass but didn't because they knew it would create two million jobs and assure Obama's reelection. Many republicans are in unemployment lines who should be thankful to the Gop
for their predicament.

[Uncle Joe]

24. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, meow.

[wordpix]

25. Hurray Bill! And why should he offer up specifics? R$ never does

[JackN415]

28. Sadly true. But sadder still that are such perpetrators and people believe them n/t

[JimDandy]

29. The balls of Bill. About time

someone with a national platform said this.

[Democratopia]

30. Ten ways Rupublicans have tried to keep the unemployment rate high

1/ Opposed stimulus that massively boosted employment, through grants, state bailouts and tax cuts
2/ Opposed Jobs Bill that offsets payroll tax for businesses that hire workers that were on benefits
3/ Opposed extension of private healthcare jobs by trying to block Affordable Healthcare Act
4/ Opposed successful bailout of auto-industry that saved an estimated one million jobs
5/ Opposed every step taken to try to give relief to the housing market and reduce foreclosures
6/ Opposed the Small Business Jobs Act that would give local banks access to loan billions of dollars
7/ Opposed bill to remove tax breaks from companies that outsource jobs abroad
8/ Created debt-ceiling crisis that created loss of consumer and business confidence
9/ Put pressure on Bureau of Labor Statistics by claiming unemployment rate is fiddled
10 Stepped up rhetoric about war in Iran that led to further increases in crude oil and gas prices


Obama has worked his butt off trying to get us out of a hole.

What have Republicans done?

They have done all they can to see him fail, even if it means everyone else suffers as a result.

[HuckleB]

31. The evidence is clear. Clinton is correct.

[Megahurtz]

32. I Totally Believe It.

So many issues Obama tried to address and get to pass and Republican Congress blocks everything. Then the crooked and dishonest Republicans blame Obama for everything that has been their own doing.

Do they actually believe no one is going to notice this?

I absolutely cannot stand Republicans and their crooked and corrupt tactics.