Morning Bell: The Question That Didn’t Get Asked

Conn Carroll / April 30, 2009

Yesterday before President Barack Obama’s 100 days news conference, the Commerce Department released data showing that the U.S. economy shrank at an annual rate of 6.1% in the January-March quarter. This comes on top of a report from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics released earlier this month showing that the U.S. has lost more than 1.2 million jobs since President Barack Obama was sworn into office. Yet despite all this bad economic news Obama claimed that his stimulus $787 billion deficit spending stimulus package “has already saved or created over 150,000 jobs.” While pressing Obama on a variety of national security questions, the White House press corps failed to ask: “Mr. President, if your administration is already claiming credit for jobs created in this economy, when can the American people start holding you accountable for all the jobs lost?”

Obama’s desire to escape all accountability for his economic policies was also on display earlier in the day when he told a town hall in Missouri: “We inherited a $1.3 trillion deficit. That wasn’t me.” Oh really? The Associated Press fact checked Obama’s claim and reports:

Congress controls the purse strings, not the president, and it was under Democratic control for Obama’s last two years as Illinois senator. Obama supported the emergency bailout package in President George W. Bush’s final months — a package Democratic leaders wanted to make bigger. (more…)