Congressional Republicans pounced on a Commerce Department report showing the economy shrinking in the first quarter of the year, with Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) calling it “just the latest indictment of the Obama administration’s horribly misguided economic policies.”
Real gross domestic product — the output of goods and services produced by labor and property
located in the United States — decreased at an annual rate of 1.0 percent in the first quarter according to the “second” estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
“The GDP estimate released today is based on more complete source data than were available for
the ‘advance’ estimate issued last month. In the advance estimate, real GDP was estimated to have
increased 0.1 percent. With this second estimate for the first quarter, the decline in private inventory investment was larger than previously estimated,” the Bureau said.
“The decrease in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected negative contributions from
private inventory investment, exports, nonresidential fixed investment, state and local government spending, and residential fixed investment that were partly offset by a positive contribution from personal consumption expenditures. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased.”
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) compared President Obama’s economic plan to “a game of Chutes and Ladders: one step forward, two steps back.”
“Americans asking ‘where are the jobs?’ deserve better than this new normal of fits and starts,” Boehner added. “The House has passed dozens of bills that mean real growth and opportunity, and the president should urge Senate Democrats to take them up and put jobs first.”
Price said the report is further proof of Obama’s “horribly misguided economic policies.”
“It represents the tragic reality for so many families in cities and towns all across this great country. Folks are struggling to make ends meet, and President Obama and his allies in Washington are seemingly ambivalent to how their liberal agenda is doing real harm to real people,” he said.
“House Republicans have given our colleagues on the other side of the aisle ample opportunity to do right by the American people. We’ve sent legislation over to the Senate with a broad range of solutions that would help reinvigorate and reinforce our nation’s entrepreneurial spirit. We’ve given the president and his administration every chance to approve the Keystone XL Pipeline that would put folks to work in support of a greater American energy future,” Price continued.
“All we get is an absence of leadership from President Obama and a lack of initiative by Senate Democrats. Their inaction is inexcusable. The American people shouldn’t be asked to accept it or this dismal economic reality. House Republicans will keep fighting for a plan that offers a brighter future with more opportunity for more Americans to pursue their dreams.”
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