Rep. Andy Harris, M.D., Statement on July Jobs Report

Press Release

Today's mediocre jobs report for July indicates a stalled economy -- the report states that the share of the eligible population holding a job has declined to 58.1%, the lowest since July 1983. With the national unemployment rate at 9.1%, and only 117,000 jobs added last month, it is clear that a new fiscal policy course must be charted.

"It is apparent that America's job creators remain concerned, resulting in a continuation of the worst unemployment streak since the Great Depression. We cannot continue down the President's path of higher taxes, increased regulation, and more wasteful government spending" said Rep. Andy Harris. "We need accountability. We need to send a strong signal to the rest of the world, and especially to America's job creators, that Washington has a permanent solution to its reckless spending. It's time we pass a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution to restore global confidence in the American economy and bring back jobs."

Since the passage of President Obama's cornerstone economic policy, the trillion-dollar Stimulus package of 2009, 1.8 million American jobs have been shed, the unemployment rate has risen, and the federal debt has increased to $14.5 trillion. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, at least 150,000 new jobs need to be created each month just to keep up with population growth. The economy is not growing fast enough to employ the nearly 14 million Americans looking for jobs.

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