U.S. Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga) released a statement today welcoming President Barack Obama to Georgia but heavily criticizing President’s economic policies and their effect on the Peach State.
“Today, I welcome President Obama to the great state of Georgia – home of the Atlanta Braves and refreshing Coca-Cola,” said Price in a press release. “But, we’re also home to an 8.6 percent unemployment rate. Because of President Obama’s failed policies, hundreds of thousands of hard-working and enterprising Georgians can’t find a job and countless more have stopped looking all-together.”
President Obama comes to Atlanta today for the first time since his recent inauguration. He is scheduled to visit a school in Decatur where he will lay out a proposal to introduce a universal pre-K program, free of charge, for low-income and middle class families.
In his statement today, Price didn’t go into education but focused on high unemployment in his home state and need for pro-business policies.
For decades, through the 80s, 90s and mid-2000’s, Georgia has maintained a much lower unemployment rate than the national average. In October of 2000, Georgia clocked in 3.3 percent unemployment, while the national average was at 6 percent.
The Peach State started catching up with the rest of the nation in 2004 and passed the national unemployment rate in March of 2005.
After that, it has stayed around the same as national average through 2007 but surpassed it in the summer of 2008; Georgia finished 2008 with 8.1 percent unemployment, while the national average was 7.3.
It only got worse - in June of 2009 Georgia hit double digits, at 10 percent, and it climbed steadily to reach its record high in October 2009 of 10.5 percent unemployment (national at the time was 10 percent).
Most importantly, as Price points out, Georgia has been recovering slower than other states, and through 2012 the Peach State stayed around 9 percent unemployment, while the nation came down to around 8 percent.
Price believes the President is to blame for the anemic growth in the South.
“After four years of the president’s promises that greater government spending and regulations would bring relief and a real recovery, Georgia families and small businesses are facing a future of higher health care costs, higher taxes and less economic certainty,” Price added. “Even the most basic necessities are more expensive. When President Obama took office, Georgia families were paying approximately $1.72 per gallon of gas. Today, it’s $3.58, taking a larger bite out of a family’s budget.”
Click here to read Rep. Price’s full statement.
Click here for national unemployment statistics.
Click here for Georgia unemployment statistics.
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