The Labor Department released unexpectedly sunny job numbers last week, reporting that the economy added 243,000 jobs in January. The report crushed predictions that early 2012 would bring only a modest 150,000 jobs. And revisions to November and December data tallied another 60,000 previously uncounted jobs. The good news sent a sizable disturbance through the rhetoric of prominent Republicans.
For three years, Republican politicians have been lunching for free when it comes to the economy. They have nothing to gain from economic recovery as long as the president is a Democrat. They’re not-so-secretly in love with a sub-stellar growth rate, high unemployment and the national debt.
After President Barack Obama was elected in 2008, nobody intelligent was shocked at the possibility of deficit spending to aid the wasted economy. The recession was the Great Depression’s runner-up, for God’s sake.
But this is precisely why the Republicans’ call to cut the federal budget came when it did.
As the “need” to slash budgets during a recession somehow became a legitimate idea, red states got a license to lay off as many government employees as they could justify while still declaring Obama’s ownership of the unemployment rate. Lest this effect be wrongly underestimated, the Huffington Post reported last month that nearly a third of all layoffs in 2011 came from government payroll. A third. No other industry came half as close.
Remember that next time a deficit hawk bemoans the unemployment rate or asks, “Where are the jobs?”
But after months of consistent job growth, an unmistakable clunk is now audible in the Republican media machine. Journalists and politicos have begun to wonder if the GOP’s message will fall flat if the economy continues adding 200,000 jobs a month.
With the publishing of each new jobs report, Mitt Romney spends a few days trying to hush the good news, saying the economy is doing better in spite of Obama’s policies, not because of them. But Romney doesn’t appear to control this conversation whatsoever. His approach is nervous and defensive, and it’s not an argument that can beat Obama in a general election, especially if the economy keeps the president’s sails full.
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell also tried his hand at some experimental rhetoric in the last week.
“Look, I’m glad the economy is starting to recover, but I think it’s because of what Republican governors are doing in their states, not because of the president,” McDonnell said Sunday on CNN.
This is not a surprising argument for McDonnell to make. As a governor of the watchdog party, his ultimate publicity goal is to make sure that he gets credit for everything good in his state, and that everything bad is his state is blamed on the president. Democrats would do the same if roles were reversed.
Talking Points Memo reported that McDonnell’s argument “may turn into a Republican talking point if the economy continues to improve,” but I’m skeptical. Putting the word “recovery” so close to “economy” implies some success on Obama’s part, and call me a nitpicker, but the infamous Republican wordsmith Frank Luntz knows how pervasive those insinuations can become and will surely advise politicians against those slip-ups.
It’s cute that Republicans suddenly want ownership of the economy, but whether X or Y truly deserves credit for recent job growth is immaterial to me, and it’s probably of little concern to Bob McDonnell. Everyone with an opinion is already a partisan, and everyone without one is better served knowing that it probably doesn’t matter. It’s just another page in the tug-of-war for independents. Spend too much time hung up on the facts, and you’ll miss all the interesting stuff.
