Obama calls jobs report 'not good enough'

 

 President Barack Obama called the last month's jobs report, which showed weak growth and over 350,000 people dropping out of the workforce, "not good enough" at a rally on Friday, meanwhile mocking Republicans' tax proposals and asking for another four years to accomplish his proposals. The unemployment rate fell in August from 8.3% to 8.1%, according to the Labor Department report issued Friday, but that slip was fueled by 368,000 people dropping out of the workforce. 

The 96,000 jobs added is far below the generally accepted 150,000 needed to simply keep up with population growth, and Obama said that "there is a lot more that we can do."

"We need to create more jobs faster. We need to fill the hole left by this recession faster. We need to come out of this crisis stronger than when we went in," Obama told voters in Plymouth, New Hampshire.

"When Congress gets back to town next week," he continued, "you need to send them a message: go ahead and give middle class families and small businesses the confidence of knowing that their taxes, your taxes will not go up next year."

The president traveled to the battleground state in the wake of his party's nominating convention, which concluded Thursday evening in Charlotte, North Carolina after Obama accepted the Democratic presidential nomination. GOP challenger Mitt Romney is to campaign in the Granite State Friday evening.

Romney's running mate, meanwhile, held a rally in Nevada, a battleground state where the unemployment rate is 12%. Rep. Paul Ryan said at the steamy outdoor event at a Peterbilt Motors Company dealership in Sparks, Nevada the president is "good at giving great speeches, he's just really bad at creating jobs."

"You know we learned today for that every person that got a job, nearly four people stopped looking for a job," the Wisconsin lawmaker said, comparing the 96,000 new jobs and 368,000 people who dropped from the workforce. " They gave up. We can't keep doing this," the Wisconsin lawmaker said

He added, "Friends, this is not an economic recovery, this is nowhere close to an economic recovery. We need a new president and we need a real economic recovery."

Obama told supporters Friday "I need four more years" to accomplish a set of goals he laid out in his speech at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night.

"New Hampshire, I need you to help me recruit a hundred thousand math and science teachers and improve early childhood education and give two million workers the skills they need at community colleges," he said.

He also called for deficit reduction, doubling exports in the next two years, and halving imports of oil in the next 8 years in his Thursday evening remarks.

Speaking to reporters in Iowa before Obama's event, Romney said Obama "has been unable to deliver on virtually any of the promises he made when he ran for office four years ago.

"The idea that the American people are going to accept the same promises again would be one that I think would be flying in the face of America's ability to understand what's in their best interest," he said.

Obama has previously blasted Republicans - and they have criticized him - for the standoff over an extension of Bush-era tax breaks which is to expire at the end of this year, absent Congressional action. Obama and many Democrats favor extending the break on income below a certain threshold - Obama has advocated for $250,000 - while Republicans generally favor extending the break on all levels of income.

The three-day convention had its share of criticism Romney and the Republicans, and on the trail Friday, Obama blasted the GOP for offering "the same prescriptions that they've had for the last 30 years."

"Tax cuts, tax cuts, gut some regulations and, oh, more tax cuts," Obama said. "Tax cuts when times are good, tax cuts when times are bad, tax cuts to help you lose a few extra pounds.

"Tax cuts to improve your love life," he continued. "It'll cure anything, according to them."

New Hampshire is one of the nine toss-up states on the CNN Electoral Map. Obama won the state and its four electoral votes by nine percentage points in the 2008 election. 

by  Rachel Streitfeld