Candidates use job report to launch attacks

A new report about the jump in the jobless rate prompted both major-party presidential candidates to attack each other’s economic policies.
 
{mosads}The national unemployment rate rose to a five-year high of 6.1 percent last month as American companies cut about 84,000 jobs, according to a Labor Department report released Friday.
 
Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) said in a statement: “When our economy is hurting, the last thing we should do is raise taxes as Barack Obama plans to do and has done. The American people cannot afford a Barack Obama presidency."
 
Sen. Obama (Ill.), the Democratic presidential candidate, responded with his own statement: "Today’s jobs report is a reminder of what’s at stake in this election — John McCain showed last night that he is intent on continuing the economic policies that just this year have caused the American economy to lose 605,000 jobs.”
 
Polls show the economy is one of voters' top concerns as they weigh whom to vote for this November.