The bright side

The bright side of June's dismal employment report is that perhaps the obvious signs of stagnation will strengthen Obama's hand in pushing for new stimulus measures as part of the debt ceiling agreement. John Boehner at last seems to recognize the problem:

In a political role reversal Friday, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) warned that Congress risks severely harming the economy and exacerbating the unemployment crisis if it fails to raise the national debt ceiling in the next four weeks.

"While some think we can go past August 2nd, I frankly think it puts us in an awful lot of jeopardy, and puts our economy in jeopardy, risking even more jobs," Boehner told reporters at his weekly Capitol briefing.

By contrast, I think if the employment report had shown growth in jobs around 150,000 as expected, the mood in Washington would have been that the recovery, while not as strong as we would want, is self-sustaining and we can continue on our merry budget cutting way.