Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels blasted President Barack Obama on CNBC's "Squawk Box" program, blaming his administration for “a national policy that’s as anti-jobs as anyone could design.”
Daniels on Tuesday praised the efforts of several Republican
governors in neighboring states to trim public spending, reduce entitlement programs, and balance their budgets.
He urged them to ignore their sagging approval ratings and persist in following the right policies.
But Daniels also warned there’s no assurance the high jobless rate will turn around anytime soon, due to policies coming out of Washington.
“I can’t tell them that joblessness will come down, despite them doing all the right things, because we’ve got a national policy that’s as anti-jobs as anyone could design,” said Daniels, a high-profile potential GOP presidential prospect until he opted not to run. “We’re all swimming upstream against really very counterproductive national decisions.”
Daniels added the president may be probably pursing a longer-term social agenda beyond jobs growth.
“Maybe he doesn’t understand where jobs come from or how incredibly destructive it is to pile barriers, taxes, regulations, and threats of more of the same in their way,” he said. “That’s what this administration has been doing since the minute they got there.”
To support his criticism, Daniels cited statistics suggesting job growth should have kicked in much earlier in this recovery cycle, based on historical patterns. But other analysts say financial recessions of the type the United States experienced in 2008 take much longer to overcome.
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