Jobless figures still reeling a year after bank bailouts

(NECN/ABC) – Reeling from the news that another 263,000 Americans lost their jobs in September, pushing unemployment to 9.8-percent, President Barack Obama tried to reassure the public in his weekly radio address that his administration was working to solve the nation’s economic woes. “Yesterday’s report on September job losses was a sobering reminder that progress comes in fits and starts, and that we will need to grind out this recovery step by step,” the president said. Since taking office, President Obama has faced criticism from Republicans for not finding a solution to the nation’s economic problems, despite the nearly $800 billion of stimulus money — and all the bailouts. It was one year ago that Congress authorized President George W. Bush to spend $700 billion to bailout the financial system. Mr. Bush said at the time he believed the banking industry was too big to fail. “I believe government intervention should occur when necessary, in this situation action is clearly necessary,” President Bush said on October 3, 2008. Mr. Obama used a similar approach to authorize billions of taxpayer dollars to save the automotive industry. And now with those multi-billion-dollar health care reform proposals working their way through Capitol Hill, Republicans claim that all the president’s spending will not turn things around. “At a time when both parties should be squarely focused on getting Americans back to work, Democrats are actually redoubling their efforts to implement job-killing policies that will stretch family budgets even further and pile more debt on our children and grandchildren,” Rep. Candice Miller (R-Mich.) said. The White House was considering doing more for the jobless, which could include another extension of unemployment benefits. ABC’s David Kerley reports.