Obama blames job losses during the Bush administration on Bush

From the Southern Illinoisan:

"Every business always feels that it is overtaxed and every individual feels that they are overtaxed -- I know I do when April 15 rolls around," Obama said. "Republicans at the state level would like to maintain that Illinois' economic problems have to do with Illinois being a uniquely high taxed stated and that is simply not the case. Our tax rates in Illinois when compared to other states in the Midwest are on par or lower than many surrounding states." ***

"The real problem we have in Illinois are the policies that have been filtering down from the Bush administration during the past three or four years," Obama said. "Those policies have accelerated the loss of manufacturing jobs and also accelerated health care costs. Unless we solve those problems I don't think we're going to be able to make much progress." ***

Obama said the deindustrialization of the state -- the loss of manufacturing jobs -- was not caused by fee increases.

During Bush's presidency, 2.8 million manufacturing jobs have been lost. Manufacturing is the hardest-hit sector of the economy -- accounting for 95 percent of jobs lost and having lost jobs every month since Bush took office. [www.bls.gov]