Portman Statement on Ohio's August Unemployment Report

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio) released the following statement regarding the increase in Ohio’s unemployment rate to 9.1 percent:

“Ohio’s latest unemployment numbers are disappointing and a sign that President Obama’s economic policies of more government and higher deficits are not working.

“With 536,000 Ohioans and 14 million Americans out of work, Washington cannot afford to ignore the underlying problems that are stifling economic growth. These unemployment rates are not just numbers, these are families struggling and dreams denied in part because Washington is leading the economy in the wrong direction.

“I hope that when President Obama visits Ohio next week, he will agree to work with Republicans on our jobs plan, which entails meaningful economic growth proposals, rather than revisit the same failed, temporary policies from the first stimulus.”

Portman recently drafted the Senate Republican Jobs Plan as a way to jump-start our economy. The plan includes reforming the tax code to make it competitive, enacting sensible regulatory relief, promoting export opening agreements, improving our job-training system to strengthen the American workforce, lowering health care costs and adopting an aggressive energy policy that lessens America’s dependence on foreign oil.