Obama's economy not so hot

Wall Street Journal:

Republicans launched a political offensive against President Barack Obama's handling of the economy after weeks of reticence, emboldened by Friday's report of a surging unemployment rate.

Political strategists have been pushing GOP lawmakers to attack Mr. Obama's $787 billion stimulus plan and to challenge how the Democratic Congress has handled everything from taxes to unions to energy policy. At the same time, Republicans have worried such attacks would backfire in the event of a recovery.

With Friday's report that the unemployment rate had jumped to 9.4%, the highest monthly reading since September 1983, Republicans put aside those qualms.

Rep. Dave Camp (R., Mich.), the senior Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, declared the stimulus plan a failure. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R., Ohio) proclaimed, "Washington is hanging middle-class Americans out to dry."

"This is President Obama's economy now," said House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R., Va.).

Republicans noted that a report by the Obama transition team in early January said that without a large stimulus plan, unemployment would go above 9%. It is now above that level, despite passage of the stimulus plan, though less than 5% of funds have been spent.

White House economists said Friday that the economic slide built up steam between the time that report was drafted and passage of the plan in February.

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I don't think the White House spin is persuasive. As noted in the post below, the added spending by the Obama administration is driving up the cost of borrowing for everyone. Add to that the uncertainties caused by the Obama teams screwing of secured creditors in favor of the unions in the auto bailouts which is causing the cost of borrowing to go up even more for companies with unions.

The Democrats tax and spend philosophy is not working.