(CNN) – A report showing U.S. economic growth slowing over the past three months provided ammunition for Republicans Thursday, who pinned responsibility for a weak economy squarely on President Barack Obama.
Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, wrote in a statement the numbers represented "just more devastating news for struggling American families."
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"Instead of spending his time fighting for American jobs, President Obama is working desperately to save his own," Priebus continued, "As a result, 23 million Americans are struggling for work. We need a new president who understands how the economy works and who will make job creation his number one priority. Mitt Romney will be that president."
Mitt Romney's presidential campaign released a statement and held a conference call characterizing the report as dismal news for Americans looking for jobs.
"President Obama has been claiming that his economic policies have 'worked.' This morning's GDP numbers suggest otherwise," former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty wrote in a statement from Romney's team. "It seems that the President's poor stewardship of the economy is only going to come to an end when his term comes to an end. Instead of generating growth and jobs, he has only generated uncertainty. Let's hope that the President finds the time amid his busy fundraising schedule to meet with his Jobs Council at least on one more occasion in what remains of his failed presidency."
An adviser to Romney summed up the Republican response on Twitter:
GDP = Grossly Disappointing President #ObamaIsntWorking
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Eric Fehrnstrom (@EricFehrn) July 27, 2012The report from the Commerce Department showed the U.S. economy slowed in the second quarter amid weak consumer spending, government cuts and a rise in imports from foreign countries.
Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation's economic health, grew at an annual rate of 1.5% from April to June, the Commerce Department said, down significantly from a 2% rate in the first three months of the year.
The Commerce Department also released revisions going back to the start of 2009. While the revisions showed that growth in 2010 was weaker than previously thought, 2009 and 2011 were slightly stronger.
The economy needs to grow around 3% a year to bring the unemployment rate down significantly, and since consumer spending accounts for roughly two-thirds of the economy, it too needs to grow around 3%.
"The report this morning was not too off of what most economists expectations were with a headline number of 1.5% for GDP growth, but those expectations themselves, and the report itself, were actually quite disappointing. It's a picture of a decelerating economy," Romney economic adviser Glenn Hubbard said on a conference call organized by the presumptive GOP nominee's campaign.
Alan B. Krueger, the chairman of Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, framed the numbers in a White House blog post as the "twelfth straight quarter of positive growth," though he acknowledged the rate of growth was still too slow for job creation.
"While the economy continues to move in the right direction, additional growth is needed to replace the jobs lost in the deep recession that began at the end of 2007," Krueger wrote.
CNNMoney's Annalyn Censky contributed to this report.
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You can thank NOBAMA and Harry GREED for the economy. Oh and BTW. a new CBS/New York Times Poll has NOBAMA losing right now. People are starting to see through the lies.
It is always the same people on here (about 40 – 50) that spout the nonsense about the GOP. No one is worried. ROMNEY 2012!!!
So America then should reid itself of Congress, because the repuks in Congress have done nothing to help and everything to HURT the economy. Right?
Does one party have a spending problem? Let's look at the facts. Spendiing originates in the House, all of it.
Over the last 12 years, Democrats controlled the House from 2007 to 2011, four years. Those years so our national debt increase have roughly $4 trillion added to it. Republicans controlled the House for all of the others between 2001 and 2012, eight years. During those years the national debt saw $11 trillion added to it.
Now you tell me. Which party has a spending problem?
people need to remember what Obama promised. by not he said he would have cut the deficit in half he increased it by 6 trillion)
He said he would reduce the unemployment rate to 5.6%. ( It is currently 8.2)
he said he was going to unite the country ( we have never been more divided)
he was going to have the most transparent admin ever. ( solyndra, F&F, national security leaks and the list goes on)
by his own measures he has failed and doesn't deserve another term.
If Barack Obama wins re-election, the national debt will stand at $22 trillion when he leaves office in Jan. 2017.
$11 trillion of debt built up from George Washington to George Bush.
$11 trillion of debt built up by a single President – Obama.
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How is President Obama going to do this. Please explain?
Well lets see the house of reps is the record holder for the least amount of work ever done in the history of this house! The senate runs by the minority party who is lead by Mitch Mcconnell and his just blocks everything in the hope he can make this president a one term president. Its time to vote like my dad did with a straight party ticket. He always told me that it made no sense to vote one party into the white house and another into congress because it just promotes fighting instead of working. We as a people need to decide if education, social sucerity, feeding hungry people , healing people who are ill who might be out of a job or no money to pay for the healing ect ect ect. You can vote in the other party who truly believes that paying for defense is the only function of the federal goverment. one party wants to cut out these programs and one party wants to keep only defense. The election is just that clear! Do you build a goverment that is for %2 of the people or do you build a goverment that is for %98 of the people. We as voters don't seem to trust either party to be in real power so we vote to send them there to fight not work!
Let's face it, you conservatives can babble and accuse President Obama of too much spending and of inflating the national deficit all you want but anyone with commonsense and integrity could clearly see that the stimulus bills passed in 2009 and 2010 were passed out of NECESSITY to stabilize the economy, help the unemployed keep food on the table and a roof over their families's heads while the look for work and to create jobs! And commonsense would also tell you that if there was NO economic crisis to begin with, then there would be NO stimulus bills. Therefore, all the federal funds spent so far to stabilize the economic crisis the you the GOP caused are on their TAB. And by the way, you conservatives can add your 5 trillion dollar war bill to your price tag! Fiscal responsibility? Haha!
the headline should not have been Republicans slam Obama over GDP report. It should have been "GDP report another clear sign the the direction were heading is the wrong one". CNN has every water cooler filled with coolaid.
Republicans – BY THEIR OWN ADMISSION – have done everything they can to prevent economic recovery. That has been their stated goal! And, despite all that, the US economy is actually growing. The underlying problem in the economy is lack of demand. Interest rates are now effectively zero or below zero. So there has never been a better time for a major investment by the government in infrastructure. We could effectively have investors pay us to rebuild our energy grid, for example. Or massively increase educational opportunity. This depression is a manufactured republican depression.
GOP lead congress has been in power for almost 2 years now from 2010 to 2012....GDP for the same period has steadily gotten weaker because GOP obstructed everything that Obama was doing.... sept 2011 American Jobs Act was killed by congress for their political vandeta...to defeat Obama! Too bad, they defeated America instead.
when your nightmares end WILLARD begins
GOP is very good at finger pointing, they just don't like pointing at themselves.
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Huh? We are 3 years into the Obama Administration, the first two of which were filled with televised promises and 110% support for those programs. Thank goodness it's 2012. Accountability will be the message in November.
The REASON the economy is not improving is because the Republicans are determined they are not going to work with this President on anything related to the economy!! Let's face it...if they do, and the economy starts to thrive, that would be their worst nightmare. Having said that, they are determined to DO NOTHING and let the country got to hell rather than work with him to try to make things better!! That's been the mission since day one!!!
This guy is a complete joke. Anyone who votes for Obama in 2012 is completely delusional. Romney did invest in companies that failed, but guess what? So did the US taxpayers (Solyndra, Amonix Solar, Bright Source, LSP Energy, Energy Conversion Devices, Abound Solar, UniSolar, etc). The difference? Investors have a choice to invest with Bain Capital, taxpayers didn't with stimulus.
The worst Congress in history with the GOP stopping any economic stimulus, no wonder the economy is recovering slowly. But don't expect any fox news types to understand economics or actual policy, only talking points.
It is The Economy, Mr. President. Your Economy, Mr. President.
If I'm not mistaken, just a few days ago, Mitt Romnet accused President Obama of "attacking" job creaters and then he said to the President, the government doesn't create jobs, businesses are the job creators in America! Well, I rest my case! Perhaps you conservatives should be asking businesses where are the jobs? Pathetic!
First thing is the market is up over 100 points based on this report. Second, I think Mitt's plan is to start a war with Iran and keep the costs off the books like George did, and of course lower tax rates for the 1%. Then when it all tanks, he will blame Obama for creating the problem.
An average of 1.9% GDP growth for obama's entire term, a loss of 238,000 small businesses since he took office, over a million fewer jobs abailable sine he was sworn in, the first financial downgrade in US history, I'd say obama's record is one of total abject failure. And more of this is what we have to look forward to if he is re-elected? Its apparent obama was in far over his head when he took this job, he was never qualified and still isn't qualified. The American people aren't buying anymore of his blaack and white pictures of rainbows.
Jason
If Barack Obama wins re-election, the national debt will stand at $22 trillion when he leaves office in Jan. 2017.
$11 trillion of debt built up from George Washington to George Bush.
$11 trillion of debt built up by a single President – Obama.
–
How is President Obama going to do this. Please explain?
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That defies any logical explanation. The national debt is only $16 trillion, yet you have accounted for $22 trillion.
"Nice try, but we gotcha."