The U.S. Labor Department reported the economy lost 701,000 jobs in March and the unemployment rate came in at 4.4%, up from the 3.5% in February. The report also stated that the job losses were actually more as the survey took place two weeks before the month ended. There were also 6.6 million who applied for unemployment assistance during the month. The job losses were the worst since the great economic recession that took place on President George W. Bush's watch.
The 701,000 loss of jobs in March wiped out all the job gains the previous three months and some in November 2019. So the Trump administration falls farther and farther behind the Obama's record of job creation. And those who follow the facts surely knew the Trump-GOP tax cuts would be a larger drain on the U.S. economy if a crisis ever came because tax cuts are not economic policy. And because of Trump and the GOP's lack of an economic policy, we now have a $2.2 trillion stimulus package whose cost is approximately $800 billion more than the TARP program and the stimulus package passed to address the economic recession of 2008.
The positive job growth that began in 2009 and the record economic expansion of 10 years now comes to an end on the watch of another republican administration. And the increase in deficit spending increased on Trump's watch before the word coronavirus was ever spoken and Trump's own budget director predicted last year that this fiscal years deficit will exceed $1 trillion. It will actually be much greater with the added spending because of the virus.
So the reckless and unnecessary Trump-GOP tax cuts, coupled with Trump's trade wars, the global economic slowdown, the glut of oil on the world market, an overpriced stock market, a lack of an economic policy, the collapse of oil prices and now the coronavirus will take another toll on our country's fiscal house and national debt problem. And once again, for those who follow the facts, it is not just a coincident it is taking place on the watch of a republican administration.
