Reuters reports today, “U.S. employment growth ground to a halt in June, with employers hiring the fewest number of workers in nine months, dousing hopes the economy would regain momentum in the second half of the year. Nonfarm payrolls rose only 18,000, the weakest reading since September, the Labor Department said on Friday, well below economists’ expectations for a 90,000 rise. The unemployment rate climbed to a six-month high of 9.2 percent, even as jobseekers left the labor force in droves, from 9.1 percent in May. ‘The message on the economy is ongoing stagnation,’ said Pierre Ellis, senior economist at Decision economics in New York. ‘Income growth is marginal so there’s no indication of momentum.’ . . . The government revised April and May payrolls to show 44,000 fewer jobs created than previously reported. The report shattered expectations the economy was starting to accelerate after a soft patch in the first half of the year.”

It’s clear from this disappointing report that now is certainly not the time for tax hikes that would certainly hurt the economy, nor for more failed stimulus spending that would only make the debt crisis worse.

Speaking at a press availability on Wednesday, Senate Republican Whip Jon Kyl explained why tax hikes are a bad idea: “There’s a sense that Republicans need to do something to make the president happy here in order to reach an agreement. And that making the president happy is to agree to some kind of a tax hike. Let’s get back to what the fundamental question is. What is good for the economy? What will put Americans back to work again? What’s the right medicine? What’s the wrong medicine? We’re in a bad economic downturn. We know that. We’ve got high unemployment. We know that. Jobs are not being created in the country. What’s the right medicine? Is it to add more taxes onto the people who create jobs? The answer is no.”

And Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) added, “It seems so obvious that if you want more of something, in this case jobs, that you make it easier, not harder and raising taxes, as you’ve heard, is something we believe will make it harder on job creators to create jobs to deal with the number one issue in America.”

Related:

Rasmussen Reports: 72% Favor Free Market Economy Over One Managed by the Government

ReddingNewsReview: Black unemployment hovers at record 16.2%

“Can you imagine a situation where any other group of workers, if 34 percent of white women were out there looking for work and couldn’t find it?” asked Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, the Democratic chairman of the caucus. “You would see congressional hearings and community gatherings. There would be rallies and protest marches. There is no way that this would be allowed to stand.”

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