Pelosi Statement on March Job Loss Numbers

Washington, D.C. - Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement on Labor Department statistics released this morning showing that 663,000 jobs were lost in the month of March and an unemployment rate of 8.5 percent, the highest rate in 26 years.

"Today's severe job loss numbers are further evidence of why we must continue to move America's economy in a New Direction.  Since the recession began almost a year and a half ago, 5.1 million American jobs have been lost.  America cannot afford a return to the failed Bush economic policies that have led to recession, unemployment, and the worst economic climate in decades.

"President Obama and Congress are working together to chart a New Direction for America's economy.  We began with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which will create and save 3.5 million jobs by rebuilding America, making us more competitive and energy independent, transforming our economy, and providing about 95 percent of working Americans with a tax cut that they are already seeing in their paychecks this month.

"The budget blueprint the House passed last night builds on the progress of the Recovery Act and the other legislative achievements of the past three months, which taken together represent the biggest investments in job creation, education, health care, and energy independence in generations.  Embracing the priorities of President Obama, our budget also begins to reverse the failed policies of the past that has led to job losses, deep deficits, and mounting debt, and puts us on course to cutting the deficit in half."