Obama, McCain use steep job losses for attacks

Both presidential nominees on Friday attempted to use disheartening employment statistics to attack the other and portray themselves as the cure for an ailing economy. 

The Labor Department announced on Friday that employers cut 159,000 jobs last month, the biggest decline since 2003.

{mosads}“America’s middle class needs help from a government that is truly standing on their side and not in their way,” Republican nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) said in a statement.

“I will reverse out-of-control spending, end the wasteful and corrupting practice of earmarks, and get the government budget back to balance,” McCain added. “I will reform healthcare to control costs and better serve American families, open markets around the globe for our products, cut taxes and expand domestic production of energy to eliminate the ability of international oil markets to hold our economy hostage. I will create jobs and get the economy on the right track.”

He also attacked Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), accusing him of seeking to increase taxes, “going on a massive spending binge, and closing off markets."

“Our nation cannot afford Sen. Obama’s higher taxes,” McCain stated.

Obama, on the other hand, sought to tie McCain to President Bush’s economic policies.

“With three-quarters of a million jobs lost this year, and millions of families struggling to pay the bills and stay in their homes, this country can’t afford Sen. McCain’s plan to give America four more years of the same policies that have devastated our middle class and our economy for the last eight,” Obama stated.

“Instead of Sen. McCain’s plan to give tax breaks to CEOs and companies that ship jobs overseas, I will rebuild the middle class and create millions of new jobs by investing in infrastructure and renewable energy that will reduce our dependence on oil from the Middle East,” Obama added.

The Illinois senator also called on Congress to pass an economic stimulus measure aimed at helping the middle class.