Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), Vice Chairman of the Joint Economic Committee and senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee, today called that the 130,000 increase in the number of private sector jobs the economy created during April, “Another in a series of disappointments President Obama’s policies have inflicted upon hardworking Americans eager to see the economy grow.”

 

“The most striking thing about this report is that the labor force participation rate has fallen to 63.6%, its lowest level since December 1981,” Brady said. “The unemployment rate declined for the wrong reason—people wanting work leaving the labor force.”

“If we factored in the decline in the share of Americans in the labor force because of the workers who have dropped out of the job market entirely, the unemployment rate would be 11.5%,” Brady noted.

“The president and his team will undoubtedly boast that April’s job figures mark the 26^th consecutive month of private sector job growth, in which over 4 million private payroll jobs have been added. Yet, this figure pales when compared to recoveries from past severe recessions.” Brady noted that over a comparable 26 month period during the Reagan recovery, private sector jobs increased by more than 10% or at 2 ½ times the rate of the Obama recovery. If jobs had increased in this recovery at the pace of the Reagan recovery we would have another 6.5 million jobs today.  We’d have more private sector jobs than at any point in the nation’s history.

“The difference is that Reagan took an entirely different approach than President Obama,” Brady said. “Since President Obama has taken office he has placed his faith in the ability of government to solve problems and pursued an agenda that seeks to punish job creators with higher taxes and more regulation. Reagan sought to reduce the role of government with less spending, lower taxes and less regulation. It’s pretty clear that Reagan’s approach works better,” Brady continued. “Rather than attack those who seek to create jobs, the government should get out of their way.”

“If a picture is worth a thousand words, the graph supplied below speaks millions,” Brady said. “People can judge for themselves which president did a better job and which policies worked best. President Obama has seen fit to cite Mr. Reagan’s example when it has suited him. He would do better to start acting like him.”