Missouri Pols Play Unemployment Blame Game

Missouri Republicans hopped all over the new unemployment rate Friday, which hit double-digits for the first time in 26 years.

GOPers said the 10.2 percent jobless number proved that the Obama administration's massive economic stimulus package failed to accomplish its intended goals, eight months after its passage.

"While President Obama told us that the failed stimulus would keep unemployment below 8 percent, more than 10 percent of Americans are unemployed," Congressman Roy Blunt said in a statement.

The country lost 190,000 jobs in October, continuing a downward trend that began last spring.

The Obama administration noted that employment in temporary jobs increased by 33,700. Christina Romer, chair of the president's Council of Economic Advisors, said that number represented a sign of hope amid "painful evidence of continued labor market weakness."

"The motor vehicle industry also posted employment gains. These are hopeful signs that the unprecedented policy actions are working to stabilize the economy and put us on a path toward recovery," said Romer. Read her full statement HERE.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) attempted to tie Missouri's Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate to the climb in unemployment.

"Robin Carnahan was among those Democrats who said that she would have voted in favor of the failed stimulus debacle," said NRSC press secretary Amber Wilkerson Marchand.

In an interview with The Notebook back in March, Carnahan did not specifically commit support to the $787 billion dollar stimulus package, but said "we've got to do something."

On the specific legislation, Carnahan said, "I didn't read the 18-hundred page bill and wasn't asked to vote on that. There's no reason for me to kind of talk about something I didn't have any input on. (You can watch the full clips from that interview HERE.)

Meanwhile, Missouri Democrats tried to reach back to the Bush administration to pin blame for the country's continuing economic problems. Missouri Democratic Party executive director Brian Zuzenak said that Blunt's 93 percent voting record with President Bush makes him responsible for one of the worst economic downturns since the Great Depression.

In the 7th Congressional District, Sen. Jack Goodman said the 10.2% unemployment rate "is another sure sign that the Pelosi-Obama stimulus has failed."

Goodman, who voted against a large state spending bill that included stimulus money, has tried to carve himself out as the most fiscally conservative Republican in the race to replace Roy Blunt.

"Stimulus bills, bailouts, and government takeovers have done little more than increase the national deficit by trillions of dollars that future generations of Americans will struggle to pay off," Goodman said.