A better-than-expected Labor Department report showing a marked improvement still shows that there is a "very long way to go," even though President Donald Trump is cheering the improvements, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Friday.
"There's a great anomaly here," the New York Democrat told MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle. "The president said it's stupendous, said it's a joyous day when we have 20 million people out of work?"
The report shows the United States added 2.5 million jobs in May and that the jobless rate fell to 13.3% last month from 14.7% in April, a post World War II high.
"It's still much higher and higher than any other time during the Great Recession after 2008, and why did this happen?" said Schumer. "In large part because of the stimulus, because of the plans that we put together, mainly pushed by Democrats to pump trillions of dollars into an economy that was headed in free-fall."
Schumer added that he's worried that the new numbers will make Trump, who cheered the report, and the Republican-controlled Senate complacent at a time when several serious matters are looming.
"On July 1, loads of states have their budgets due," said Schumer. "If they don't get state and local aid there will be massive layoffs among state and local workers. We haven't seen that many of those so far."
There is also a looming rental crisis because several people who have had a three-month respite will be "thrown out of their homes," said Schumer, and the unemployment insurance boost expires on July 31, unless the Senate passes a House-approved bill that moves that date to Dec. 31.
"Let's not forget the stimulus checks, the $1,200 people got, which got a lot of money into the economy, there's no more of those unless we pass a new bill," said Schumer. "And one more point, racial justice. Racial justice, we Democrats intend to put together a plan on racial justice and a strong, bold, comprehensive plan together on Monday. Senate and House Democrats together."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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