by Mark Silva
With word that the ranks of Americans signing up for unemployment benefits last week reached the highest level in more than two years:
— Sen. Hillary Clinton found “a reminder that we are in the midst of a growing economic crisis” — a crisis in which “Sen. (John) McCain has yet to answer the call” (more of that 3 a.m. phone call theme.)
— Sen. Barack Obama found “the latest indicator of how badly America needs fundamental change from Bush-McCain policies that have been devasting for working families” (more of that McBush third-term talk.)
More Top Picks Best Rechargeable Headlamps
— McCain, while not specifically addressing the unemployment report, spoke of creating jobs with more tax cuts. He said: “I know economics very well, certainly better than Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama.”
The Labor Department reported today that new applications filed for unemployment insurance jumped by a seasonally adjusted 38,000 to 407,000 for the week ending March 29 — the highest point since Sept. 17, 2005, following hurricanes along the the Gulf Coast. Clinton, in a statment released by her campaign, said:
“Today’s dismal jobless claims report is a reminder that we are in the midst of a growing economic crisis and Senator McCain has yet to answer the call of economic leadership. Americans need a president who understands the complex challenges our economy faces – from lagging employment to record gas prices to a housing and credit crisis which threaten to drive us into a painful and deep recession.
“Sen. McCain has already admitted that he doesn’t know much about economics, and he is proving that point on the campaign trail. His plan for the housing crisis is simply not to have one.
“I’ve been trying to deliver a wake up call to the Administration on the housing crisis for more than a year. I have the most aggressive plan to help homeowners of any candidate in this race – including $30 billion in emergency assistance for families and communities to fight foreclosures. And I believe the government should stand ready to go further and temporarily purchase at-risk mortgages to help unfreeze the mortgage markets and keep millions of families in their homes.”
Obama, in a statement released by his campaign, said:
“Today’s job news is the latest indicator of how badly America needs fundamental change from Bush-McCain policies that have been devastating for working families and catastrophic for our economy. While George Bush and John McCain’s answer to this recession has been to watch it happen while pushing for more tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans, more families are facing foreclosure, rising costs, and disappearing jobs.
” It’s time for a new direction, with immediate relief for homeowners, a second stimulus package that expands unemployment insurance and helps state and local governments, and investments in millions of new jobs to strengthen our economy. Our economy is struggling because the American people are struggling, and simply bailing out investment banks on Wall Street will not help Main Street.”
McCain, interviewed by Joe Scarborough and company on MSBNC, confronted that comment about the economy not being his strong suit:
“Well, first of all, let’s clear that up. I said it wasn’t my strongest because I spent 22 years in the military, and I have been a member of the Armed Services Committee and involved in every major national security challenge in the last 20 years.
“I’ve been involved as chairman of the Commerce Committee. I have been involved as part of the Reagan Revolution where we cut taxes and restrained spending and embarked on one of the strongest periods of economic growth in the history of this country.
“I know economics very well, certainly better than Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama. So let’s clear up that.
“Obviously we’ve got to restrain spending. Obviously we need to give middle income Americans more tax cuts rather than less. We have to have balanced budgets. We can’t keep borrowing money from China. We have to exercise fiscal discipline and make sure that every earmarked project and pork barrel project is vetoed and not allowed. And someone right now will say that’s only a small part of the budget, that kind of spending has led to corruption, and it has led to members of Congress that are now residing in federal prison.
“We’re going to have to sit down together and fix Social Security and fix Medicare and balance our budgets and exercise the kind of fiscal discipline that kept us and caused us and kept us to be on a very long period of economic prosperity. Right now Americans are hurting. So we have to make sure that people keep their homes and that we create more jobs and, by the way, I am a strong believer in free trade.”