Doheny, Long on jobs report

Two candidates running for office in November had some harsh words regarding the latest jobs report for August.

Republican Matt Doheny, the Watertown businessman running against U.S. Rep. Bill Owens, D-Plattsburgh, in New York's new 21st Congressional District, said the 96,000 jobs created in August are "not enough to keep pace with population growth."

"To make matters worse, 370,000 Americans have been discouraged by the lack of opportunity in this weakened recovery and dropped out of the workforce," Doheny said in an emailed statement.

Here's the rest of his statement:

“As bleak as the federal jobs picture looks, it’s been darker for the people who live in the district my opponent currently represents. There are now 5,000 more unemployed people here now than there were when our current congressman first went to Washington three years ago.

“In his desperation to explain away a terrible jobs record, my opponent has blamed a skills mismatch between available jobs and available workers. But publications as diverse as the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post have called this sort of claim hogwash in just the last week alone.

“We have high unemployment because our recovery from the Great Recession has been weak. There’s a lack of demand for our goods and services.

“President Obama naively thought he could prime the pump by injecting $1 trillion in stimulus spending into the economy. My opponent supported it, but the results have been overwhelmingly disappointing. Obama’s advisors predicted national unemployment of 5.5 percent by this point. Instead, Obama and Owens’ continued push to drive up deficits, taxes and the amount of regulation have caused companies to forgo taking risk, spending capital and creating the growth that leads to jobs.”

Meanwhile, Republican Wendy Long, a lawyer from New York City who is running against U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said the jobs report is the "latest affirmation of the miserable failure of the Gillibrand-Obama economic policies."

Long noted that for the 43rd consecutive month, the national unemployment rate has remained above 8 percent.

"New Yorkers desperately want to get back to work, but the job-killing policies put into place by Kirsten Gillibrand are discouraging businesses from investing or hiring," she said. "The looming double whammy of Obamacare and the expiration of the Bush tax cuts are absolutely crippling business confidence. Worse, Kirsten Gillibrand has yet to pass even one of her phony 'jobs bills.' New Yorkers do not need her bubbly, bogus bromides; they need serious solutions. It's clear to most New Yorkers, as it is not clear to Kirsten Gillibrand, that higher taxes and more regulation do not create the conditions for private sector job growth. It's time for a change in Washington, and Kirsten Gillibrand must be fired for her poor job performance."