Gillespie: Obama’s policies ‘hostile’ to jobs

Ed Gillespie, a senior adviser to presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s campaign, said Sunday that President Obama’s policies are “hostile” to creating jobs in the country. 

Speaking on Fox News Sunday, Gillespie noted the healthcare reform law and the White House decision not to move forward with the Keystone pipeline this year as factors hurting “job-creators.” To improve the economy, Gillespie said those polices need to change, which can only come from the ballot box. 

“This is a hostile environment for job creation in our economy and that's why, frankly, it has a sense of urgency in terms of this year's election to be able to turn things around because the only thing that's going to change it are changing the policies and that means changing the person in the White House,” Gillespie said. 

The economy continues to struggle, as evidenced by Friday’s weak jobs report where the unemployment rate rose to 8.2 percent after employers only added 69,000 jobs for the month of May. Romney’s campaign has made President Obama’s economic record a central focus of the race. 

Gillespie said the president could show stronger leadership on the economy, especially when it comes to “tax-maggedoon” and “sequestration,” referring to a number of tax hikes and an automatic budget cut that are expected to go into effect by the end of this year.

“Gov. Romney thinks we need stronger presidential leadership. You don't see President Obama — all he does seemingly is campaign and go to fundraisers. Where is his leadership on this, on tax-mageddon and the sequestration? Has he done anything at all to try to bring members of Congress together to try to avoid this?” Gillespie said. 

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