The Republican strategy has been to seize on the ailing economy to feed public pessimism about the ability of Big Government to fix the economy -- and to revive the old canard that government is the problem, not the solution -- and Republicans are pointing to today's disappointing jobs numbers to press the case.
Here's Eric Cantor:
"For the last 18 months, Republicans have focused on cutting spending and creating jobs offering better alternatives than the Democrat majority. Now, President Obama is set to preside over one of the largest tax increases in American history, but there is a better way. Washington has a spending problem, and the policies of the Obama Administration and the Pelosi/Reid Congress have caused the size and reach of the government to explode. What the President touts as the 'Recovery Summer' is built upon the misguided notion that government expansion creates prosperity, when in reality it creates debt and deficits. We need to cut spending immediately and House Republicans, whom have already offered hundreds of billions of dollars in spending cuts, will continue to fight against the Democrats' spending spree and for enabling small business people to invest and grow so that we can get America working again."
And here's Michael Steele, with a backhanded barb at Timothy Geithner's ill-timed Op ed entitled "welcome to the recovery":
"For the millions of Americans who are unable to find work, this White House's empty cheerleading rings hollow. President Obama has been more focused on growing government than growing jobs, and it shows. The cumulative effect of his $2.5 trillion health care takeover, his overreaching financial regulatory bill, and his looming small business tax hike has created a climate of uncertainty that has left employers unable to expand their payrolls. If persistently high unemployment, crushing debt, and a continued assault on the private economy is the 'recovery' President Obama is welcoming the American people to, Congressional Democrats will be the ones getting a pink slip in November."
Republicans are pressing the case that Dem spending and regulatory policies are to blame for impeding the recovery, in hopes that voters forget what landed us in this mess in the first place. Dems appear to have decided that more government action to create jobs is not politically feasible, forcing them to gamely insist that the current policies have put us on the road to recovery. But then bad jobs numbers -- and the reality on the ground -- allow Republicans to argue that Dems are out of touch with how badly their policies are failing, feeding a sense that they aren't in touch and aren't in control.
If the Dem argument is that we can't hand the keys to Republicans because they drove us into a ditch last time, the Republican argument is that Dems had their shot at driving and have lost control of the wheel -- and don't even know it.
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