Republicans pounced Friday on a new report showing a slight 1.5% increase GDP growth in the year’s second quarter, heralding the numbers as evidence against President Obama’s economic policies.
During an appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Glenn Hubbard, an economic adviser for the Romney campaign, said the numbers signaled “a very disappointing for the future of the economy.”
“If we keep up at this rate, over the next year or two, we will simply never get back to full employment. It’s not good news,” Hubbard said.
Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, a Romney surrogate, followed suit with a statement suggesting that “the President’s poor stewardship of the economy is only going to come to an end when his term comes to an end.”
Echoing a recent theme of the Romney campaign, Pawlenty added that the President should “find time amid his busy fundraising schedule” to meet with his jobs council.
House Speaker John Boehner cited the numbers as a sign for Congress to pass an extension of the Bush era tax cuts for set to expire at the end of the year for all Americans, and not just those making under $250,000.
“If the president is serious about helping rebuild this economy, he will work with Republicans to stop these tax hikes and reform the tax code to create a better environment for private-sector job creation,” Boehner said in a statement.
While the White House acknowledged that the economy still needs further growth, they did claim to have found a silver lining in Friday’s numbers.
“The economy posted its twelfth straight quarter of positive growth,” Alan Krueger, the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, said in a statement. “Over the last three years, the economy has expanded by 6.7 percent overall, and the private components of GDP have grown by 9.9 percent.”
Kreuger added that the numbers should prompt Congress to pass President Obama’s plan to give small businesses a tax cut and help local governments retain and hire personnel.
Friday’s report, released by the Commerce Department, shows that the economy grew at a .5 percent slower rate than the previous quarter.
