Scott Statement on December Jobs Report
WASHINGTON – Ranking Member Bobby Scott (VA-03) issued the following statement after the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the economy added a total of 156,000 jobs in December, with the unemployment rate at 4.7 percent.
“When President Obama took office eight years ago, 3.6 million jobs had already been lost due to the recession. Today’s December 2016 jobs report demonstrates that our economy is undoubtedly stronger, and since early 2010, the economy has added a total of 15.8 million private sector jobs. This progress is largely due to the actions taken by the Obama Administration to bring our economy out of recession. I commend the Obama Administration for all it has done to level the playing field for our nation’s working people and those struggling to find work.
“President-elect Trump promised during his campaign that ‘under a Trump presidency, the American worker will finally have a president who will protect them and fight for them.’ However, the Republican-controlled Congress now appears poised to take many actions that will harm America’s working families, including efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Repealing the ACA would strip millions of hardworking Americans of their health insurance and increase the deficit by billions of dollars. Consumer protections such as free preventive care would also vanish. America’s working families deserve better. Perhaps President-elect Trump could focus on extending overtime protections to millions of Americans – as we urged him to do last month – instead of taking away health coverage from families. In the coming months and years, our commitment to strengthening America’s working families remains our top priority and I hope my Republican colleagues will make this their priority as well.”
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