Larry Summers: Republican critique of unemployment rate 'ridiculous'

Larry Summers, President Obama's director of the National Economic Council, on Monday said it was "ridiculous" for Republicans to point out that the 7.9 percent unemployment rate announced last Friday was higher than when the president assumed office.

"It's a ridiculous talking point," Summers told CNN. "The president obviously isn't responsible for what happened in the month or two, several months after he took office. That was driven by the policies that had been placed previously. Unemployment soared in the first few months of the president's actions before ... he was in a position to implement his policies. Once his policies were in place, within six months job creation started again at a rapid rate."

Summers went on to reject the argument that the president had prioritized his signature healthcare legislation over a jobs package that would have jump-started the economy.

"The president actually within his first month of office passed the Recovery Act, which was unprecedented as a measure to create jobs," Summers said. "Whether it was investing in infrastructure, whether it was preserving jobs for cops and teachers, whether it was putting money in the hands of middle-class taxpayers, the president's had that focus ever since."

The former Harvard president also disputed accounts of the deliberations surrounding the auto bailout, saying at no time did advisers recommend against the entirety of the package. Rather, Summers said, there was disagreement over whether to aid Chrysler specifically.

"The president made a judgment that those who wanted to let Chrysler go were wrong," Summers said. "He made that judgment because he — against the advice of many of his political advisers — because he believed that the risks to the economy of adding another blow at that moment were just too great. That was the right decision, as we've seen. With a different president, it could easily have gone a different way."

The auto bailout has become a crucial focus in Ohio and Michigan, with the president and Mitt Romney trading sharp barbs on the bailout. Obama has repeatedly referenced an op-ed Romney wrote in The New York Times in which the Republican presidential nominee urged the government to "let Detroit go bankrupt," while Romney has maintained that the president essentially followed his plan for the auto industry.

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