Trumka: If the GOP Would Lower Student Loan Rates, Jobs Numbers Would Improve

And the award for the most incoherent response to today's jobs report goes to...Richard Trumka of AFL-CIO fame:

For America’s working people, the economy is simply not delivering right now. The trend of slow job growth is both frustrating and heartbreaking. The economy added only 80,000 net new jobs last month – not nearly enough to bring unemployment down and fuel a robust recovery.

Republicans in Congress have responded to a massive jobs shortage and weak economy with obstructionism and dishonesty. They have repeatedly blocked public investment that would create jobs and spur growth, including President Obama’s American Jobs Act. They have held up countless necessary bills, including relief for student loans, by insisting on yet more tax cuts for the richest one percent and preserving existing tax breaks for outsourcers. They push a politics of austerity, which here and in Europe is strangling our economy.

Republican priorities are more tax cuts for the richest one percent and more layoffs for teachers and firefighters. The cruel reality is Mitt Romney and his Republican allies in Congress are willing to sabotage the recovery in the hope of scoring political points against the President.

That's the statement he issued, and yes. He is totally using the student loan interest rate battle as a reason for high unemployement. Of course, Congress has passed a bill keeping those rates down -- by wide, bipartisan margins in both chambers -- which the president will sign in the coming days. Regardless, the connection between $25 extra in loan payments per month and the stagnant economy is unclear.

Honestly, there's not much to say about the statement, because its absurd non sequitur-ism speaks for itself. This is total grasping at straws, especially when considering that it's been the Senate Democrats who've largely refused to move legislation (or even propose a budget!). Just know this: everything is because Republican obstructionism.

And of course, it's delicious to see Trumka's clear disappointment with numbers that Obama characterized as "A step in the right direction." Perhaps the White House and the unions ought to have a beer summit, and coordinate their talking points?