Though the April jobs report was better than expected, partisans on both sides in Washington were determined to see the negative - and to blame Washington.
Remarkably, initial reactions on Twitter from the major political parties were different in degree, but not substance.
The White House’s reaction was more positive than those of both its enemies and its allies.
“While more work remains to be done,†said Alan B. Krueger, chairman of the president’s Council on Economic Advisers, “today’s employment report provides further evidence that the U.S. economy is continuing to recover from the worst downturn since the Great Depression.â€
Mr. Krueger, in a statement, added, “Now is not the time for Washington to impose self-inflicted wounds on the economy,†and urged Congress to replace a series of automatic budget cuts, known as sequestration, with “balanced deficit reduction.â€
Representative Kevin McCarthy, the majority whip, named a different set of culprits for an economy that “continues to struggle.â€
In a statement, he said, “Our tax code is broken, onerous regulations make it more difficult to achieve all-American energy independence and small businesses and families across the country are filled with confusion and anxiety over the implementation of ObamaCare. “
Many had thought April’s might be the first monthly report to reflect the sequestration and the resulting furloughs for federal workers, and Adam Hersh, an economist at the Center for American Progress, a liberal policy group, stuck to that downbeat message:
At this pace, we will not reach full employment until June 2021. The labor market seems to be moving ahead slowly but not steadily, while automatic spending cuts mandated by the sequester have barely only begun to bite on jobs and economic growth. If we continue down the path of spending cuts and fiscal contraction demanded by sequestration, next month it will be much more than furloughed FAA workers and snarled air travelers feeling the pinch of unnecessary austerity.
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