The jobs report that just came out is bleak, and Republicans are goose-stepping in lock-step in their deceptive claim that the blame lies with Obama and the Democratic Party.  While neither side is completely blameless, the Republican claim is a lie.  No surprise there.  That’s what Republicans do. If we examine what both Democrats and Republicans have done, it becomes clear that the overwhelming majority of the blame, not only for the current economic dilemma, but also for the sluggishness of the recovery, lies with the Republicans.  What Democrats have accomplished has been effective, and more is needed, but Republicans are intentionally crucifying American workers to rise to power on their suffering.

The nation’s economy continued shedding jobs in September, as modest increases in the private sector were offset by steep losses in government employment, the Labor Department reported on Friday.

The unemployment rate remained at 9.6 percent in the final jobs report before the midterm elections. It marked the 17th consecutive month that the nation’s jobless rate has been above 9 percent, sharpening the challenge facing President Obama and congressional Democrats, whose policies have failed to produce significant new hiring.

"We have yet to make a real dent in unemployment, and now we are entering the holiday season anxious about how consumers will respond," said Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project.

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) used the tepid jobs report to again blast Obama’s economic policies – which are supported by many congressional Democrats – as not doing enough to create jobs.

"Over the past two years, the policies pursued by the president and Democrat leaders in Congress have created a cloud of uncertainty and fear that has inhibited productivity, innovation and job creation," Cantor said in a statement.

Speaking at a masonry company in Bladensburg, Obama trumpeted the gains in private-sector job growth, although he acknowledged that the overall employment picture remains troubling.

"Yes, the trend line in private-sector job growth is moving in the right direction," Obama said. "But I’m not interested in trends or figures as much as I am interested in the people behind them, the millions of honest, hard-working Americans swept up in the one of the most devastating recessions of our lifetimes."

Obama again called for greater infrastructure investments. He also chastised Republicans for delaying legislation that would provide tax incentives to encourage small-business growth. And he repeated his call to extend the George W. Bush administration’s tax cuts for family income below $250,000 while allowing the rates for income above that to rise.

Overall, employers cut 95,000 jobs in September. Private firms added 64,000 jobs, but the loss of temporary census jobs and increasing cuts by state and local governments resulted in the the elimination of 159,000 government positions… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Washington Post>

The latest bikini graph I could find is missing September, but it would show as a downward blue bar almost halfway to the first line.  The red section of the graph shows that Bush and the Republicans trashed the jobs market.  The blue portion of the graph shows that Obama and the Democrats have almost completely undone the damage to it, in spite of unprecedented Republican obstruction.  That is so severe that, on several occasions, Republicans have actually filibustered their own proposals, when Democrats agreed with them.  Why?  Republicans want to keep Americans out of work, to deceptively blame Democrats and retake power.  If they do, we can expect a return to the red secti9on of the bikini graph, or worse.  Keith Olbermann dedicated two segments of last night’s show to documenting this.  In the first, he discussed it with Ezra Klein.

In the second, Bernie Sanders, the Senate’s best Democrat who isn’t one, documents it from his Independent perspective.

Last month’s losses were public sector.  Republicans promise to cut public sector spending.  Republican plans to freeze federal spending at 2008 levels would deny the infrastructure spending and investment in green energy so necessary to complete the Democratic recovery from the Republican recession.  In addition, Republicans plans would gut the safety net that stands between millions of workers and abject poverty.  And who would benefit?  The richest Americans would get a huge tax cut.  Republicans govern exclusively for the benefit of criminal corporations and the richest 1%.

Vote!