Dems: ‘Staggering’ job loss shows need for stimulus

Leading Democrats on Friday said the loss of more than
half a million jobs in November highlights the need for a massive stimulus
package to fight the recession.

President-elect Obama said the loss of 533,000 jobs last
month is “more than a dramatic reflection of the growing economic crisis we
face,” adding that each lost job “represents a personal crisis for a family
somewhere in America.”

{mosads}Obama argued that the latest employment report shows why
Congress needs to pass his recovery plan, which would invest hundreds of
billions of dollars of taxpayer funds into infrastructure projects and green
energy.

“There are no quick or easy fixes to this crisis, which
has been many years in the making, and it’s likely to get worse before it gets
better,” Obama stated. “But now is the time to respond with urgent resolve to
put people back to work and get our economy moving again.”

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the news about the
economy “keeps getting worse and the demand for action from Washington keeps
getting greater.”

Schumer has also said that a stimulus package should cost
$500-700 billion and he added that the “jobs picture painted today is
staggering, and it should be all the evidence Washington needs to act swiftly
and decisively to shore up this economy.”

Economist Peter
Morici, a professor at the
University of Maryland, said the job loss “was much worse than was expected and represents wholesale capitulation.
The threat of a widespread depression is now real and present.”

Keith Hall, commissioner of the Bureau of
Labor Statistics, which has been around for 124 years, stated that “this is maybe one of the worst jobs reports the
department has ever produced.”

Obama argued, however, that the crisis also provides the
country “with an opportunity to transform our economy to improve the lives of
ordinary people by rebuilding roads and modernizing schools for our children,
investing in clean energy solutions to break our dependence on imported oil,
and making an early down payment on the long-term reforms that will grow and
strengthen our economy for all Americans for years to come.”