Obama delivered another economic address in Cleveland, Ohio on Thursday to deflect criticism over his poorly-worded comment in a press conference last Friday that "the private sector is doing just fine."
Ohio provides the perfect setting for Obama’s broader argument. The state, much like other swing states, have weathered the recession better than the nation as a whole. In 2009, Ohio had a 10% unemployment rate; today it’s 7.4%, despite sharp decreases in public sector spending. That’s because Ohio, like the rest of the nation, has seen a fairly robust growth in the private sector (even if that growth has been slower than in other states).
In Ohio, Obama cited Romney, not Bush, by name, in an implicit rebuttal to critics who claim that Obama is trying to run against Bush. "I've got a different vision for the future," said Obama, to emphasize his campaign theme, Forward, saying that, "I believe you cannot bring down the debt without a strong and growing economy. And I don't believe you can have a strong and growing economy without a strong and growing middle class.”
Obama knows, even if he won’t say it publicly again, that our economic future, at least our immediate economic future, lies in the public sector. Here’s a piece of anti-conventional wisdom for you: the private sector is doing just fine. Joe Weisenthal at BusinessInsider exhaustively and skillfully provides a million charts to prove it. My favorite of his charts:
There are more private sector jobs today than there were when Obama took office. That's saying something. That's why when Obama talks about renewing growth, he emphasizes the public sector. The private sector IS doing just fine! This recession has seen an unprecedented decrease in public sector jobs. Want to know why the last jobs report was lower than expected? Matt Goozner at the Fiscal Times constructs a telling graph:
See the difference? Reagan's recovery was fueled by public sector growth. What a socialist!
That’s where unique pain in this recession has been concentrated and that’s where it could be reversed. Worrying about the deficit while in a recession is like shooting yourself in the foot. You won’t see a reduction in our deficit until we raise more money to pay it off. And we won’t raise more money until the economy starts growing. Obama knows that. It’s about time everyone else catches up.
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To read more about Obama’s jobs plan, see: Barack Obama's Jobs Plan: Overview and Analysis
Similarly, for Romney’s see: Mitt Romney's Jobs Plan: Overview and Analysis
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