WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor released its monthly employment report showing that the nation’s unemployment rate jumped to 8.9 percent in April, which economists expect will rise to 10 percent next year and remain high through 2011.  In reaction to the data, Ways and Means Ranking Member Dave Camp (R-MI) issued the following statement:

“There is such a thing as a double dip recession—when the economy takes a dive shortly after getting back on its feet.  I worry that the massive tax increases the President has planned will hit our economy—and American jobs—before it can even get off the mat. 

“I understand the President wants to accomplish much, and we all do.  But sometimes people in Washington forget that there is only so much the economy and the American people can take.  In Michigan, and all across the country, families are struggling.  Employers are fighting to stay in business.  The reality is there are far too many shops that have already shut their doors.  And, we still don’t know the fate of General Motors, one of the nation’s largest employers.  The President needs to understand just how fragile this economy is and just how many families have already lost, and the number that still stand to lose, everything they have worked for. 

“The President has pledged that his trillions of dollars in proposed tax increases won’t start to take effect until 2011, when he says the economy will be out of its recession.  In light of these latest figures, I urge him to shelve those misguided plans and work with us to block growth-choking tax increases.”

###