60 Plus Chairman Jim Martin, “Where are the jobs, Mr. Carter? Obama?

(Alexandria, Virginia) — Five years into the Barack Obama presidency, the American economy remains weak and floundering, hemorrhaging jobs and reaching a 35 year low of 62.8 percent participation in the labor market, a figure not seen since 1978 during the dark days of malaise that marked the lowly depths of the Jimmy Carter era.  Currently nearly 92 million Americans are out of work or no longer in the labor market.

Labor Department figures show the economy added a paltry 74,000 jobs last month, far below the more than 200,000 that economists had predicted, and a mere fraction of the more than 330,000 Americans who left the civilian labor force. Nearly five people left the workforce for every job created.  These figures brought a response from 60 Plus Chairman Jim Martin, leader of the nation’s  largest conservative seniors organization and the acknowledged alternative to the liberal AARP:

“Today’s news is the sad, but expected reality of five years of tax, borrow and spend policies that have burdened every American family and business with crushing taxes and regulations, coupled with the oppressive job-killing mandates of Obamacare.  At every opportunity this President has turned his back on policies that help the free market and encourage job creators to hire and create prosperity.

“While government feeds at the trough of more than $2 trillion in tax revenue — a historic high — collected from America’s workers and job creators, hundreds of thousands of people are forced from the labor market every month.  The number of Americans not currently in the labor force represents a number roughly equivalent to the populations of Greece, Canada and Spain combined.

“Mr. President, America doesn’t want to return to 1978, we want an economy for 2014 that is flourishing, with good jobs and opportunity for all.  Except to those who are nostalgic for the malaise and economic disaster of Jimmy Carter, your policies are a complete failure.”

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