Kansas Republicans are not impressed with today's United States Bureau of Labor Statistics report that said the national May unemployment rate is at 9.7 percent, which is a decrease from last month. Out of the total 431,000 nonfarm positions added in May, 411,000 of the positions are temporary government jobs created for Census 2010 workers.

Only 41,000 jobs in the private sector were created.

The unemployment rate was a decrease from April’s 9.9 percent rate. The Kansas Department of Labor reported Kansas’ April unemployment rate at 6.3 percent, and the U.S. report released Wednesday indicates the Kansas City metro area’s April unemployment rate is at 8.3 percent.

Wall Street reacted poorly to today’s report with the Dow losing 324 points. While President Barack Obama issued an optimistic statement regarding the news, saying that the nation was “moving in the right direction,” the Kansas Republican delegation in Washington, D.C., argued that inflating the government while stifling the private sector should not portrayed as positive for the nation.

“While the Department of Labor says the unemployment rate improved slightly in May, over 95 percent of the new jobs created are temporary jobs for Census employees, which will end in the next few weeks,” said Rep. Jerry Moran, a Republican representing Kansas’ First District. “Over 15 million Americans remain unemployed, and the only long-term strategy to get our economy back on track is to move away from the effort to grow the size of government through reckless spending and focus on policies that encourage growth in the private sector.”

Rep. Lynn Jenkins, a Republican representing Kansas’ Second District, said that although any job growth should be considered good news, she was “extremely disappointed” that the majority of the growth was due to temporary Census positions.

“The private sector in our nation is the source of economic growth and strength, but the increased size, scope and cost of government, and the general uncertainty among businesses about higher taxes and more regulation down the road, have all but stifled private sector job growth. We cannot afford policies that make us further reliant on the federal government and that lead us down a path to becoming a welfare state,” Jenkins said.

Rep. Todd Tiahrt, a Republican representing Kansas’ Fourth District, issued a statement arguing that the nation needed private sector jobs to spur economic recovery, and not temporary government positions.

"May’s devastating jobs report should be a huge red flag to President Obama and Speaker Pelosi that we are on the wrong course. Small businesses — the backbone of our economy — are being strangled by overtaxation and onerous regulations coming from the Obama administration,” Tiahrt said. “How are jobs supposed to be created when a huge percentage of their income is taken to grow a bigger Washington?”

Kansas’ lone Democratic representative, Dennis Moore, did not issue a statement regarding the new report.

Kent Eckles, vice president of government affairs for the Kansas Chamber of Commerce, said it would be difficult for the nation’s private sector to continue supporting the growth of the government sector. Eckles pointed out that it was taxpayer dollars generated from the private sector that are used to support and create government.

“We are getting to the point where we have more people in the wagon than we have pulling it,” Eckles told Kansas Liberty.

Eckles said that the actions of the tax-and-spend coalition in the Kansas Legislature and Gov. Mark Parkinson will slow any economic recovery at the state level. The Legislature this year passed a 1-cent sales tax increase that is set to go into effect July 1. The tax is estimated to cost taxpayers more than $1.51 billion over the next five years.

“Our solution is that we need to grow private jobs here in Kansas, and you do that by reducing the price of doing business,” Eckles said.

Resources:

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Kansas Liberty story “Kansas economy struggling to recover”

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