Bush heads to Chicago (AP has to plug 'bad' December jobs report, even though unemployment fell!)

Associated Press ^ | January 6, 2006 | JENNIFER LOVEN

[GianniV]

WASHINGTON-- President Bush and leaders of his economic team fanned out to trumpet encouraging signs in the economy but were confronted Friday with disappointing news about weaker-than-expected job growth.

Friday's marquee event is Bush's trip to Chicago, where the president will appear at the Chicago Board of Trade and deliver a speech on the economy before the Chicago Economic Club.

Vice President Dick Cheney will toura Harley-Davidson factory and making remarks in Kansas City, Mo.; Treasury Secretary John Snow at the New York Stock Exchange; Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez in Louisville, Ky.; Labor Secretary Elaine Chao in Baltimore; and Energy Secretary Sam Bodman in Pittsburgh.

Their appearances come on the heels of the government's release of its employment report for December, which showed that job growth slowed from a big hiring spurt in November. There was a gain of just 108,000 jobs in December, about half of what economists were expecting. That compared with 305,000 jobs created in November, according to revised figures.

"These are strong numbers," White House deputy press secretary Trent Duffy said. He said the November and December figures signaled the economy was adding more than 200,000 jobs a month. "It's very healthy job creation."

Bush's poll numbers for handling the economy are up a bit since gasoline prices have fallen, according to AP-Ipsos polling.

And there is other positive news that Bush and his team point to, including respectable if not spectacular holiday retail sales, rising consumer confidence and a third-quarter growth rate of 4.3 percent that was the highest since early 2004.

"The tax cuts that we passed are working to create jobs and economic opportunity," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.

Democrats, on the other hand, note high prescription drug costs and confusion about the new Medicare prescription drug plan, high heating bills, displaced workers in the Gulf Coast and rising federal deficits.

"What we have here is the very definition of a middle-class squeeze-- college tuition is way up, heating prices are at record levels and health care and prescription drug prices are through the roof," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. "For the administration to be out there saying things are great shows just how out of touch they are with the average American."

McClellan said Bush would take on Democrats who oppose his call to make previously passed tax cuts permanent, instead of letting some expire as they now are scheduled to do. The administration says that to oppose extending the cuts is to "advocate raising taxes."

The president also was to call on Congress to employ spending restraint. "We need real discipline in Washington with the taxpayers' money," McClellan said.

Other areas Bush was to address include the need for freer trade around the world and adequate education and job training.

[Jerry Attrick]

2.2 million NEW jobs in 2005. Hmmm....not bad George. (Bush MUST have been responsible for hiring all these people since it was his fault before when he inherited the sour economy from Klintoon).

[napscoordinator]

Wow me too. How lucky for me. I am three below you but what is three grand to these guys. I am rich! I am rich! Damn and to think it took him to tell me that. What a horrible politician.