Don’t panic over slow pace of recovery, Obama tells US

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

With few options at hand and his poll numbers sagging, President Barack Obama expressed concern Tuesday about the sudden slowdown in the economy but said he is not worried about a second recession and the nation should “not panic.”

The president spoke about the new economic trouble in detail for the first time since a report late last week showed job growth had slowed sharply in May. He tried to reassure Americans worried about high unemployment and expensive gas that the nation is on a slow, if not steady, path to recovery.

“I am concerned about the fact that the recovery that we’re on is not producing jobs as quickly as I want it to happen,” Obama said at an appearance with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “We don’t yet know whether this is a one-month episode or a longer trend.”

And with lawmakers fighting over the nation’s budget deficit and long-term debt, there is no political appetite for a second major federal stimulus bill like the one passed by Congress in 2009.

At the same time, the president is confronted with a slate of figures presenting challenges to both the economic recovery and his own re-election prospects. Just as the field of Republican challengers begins to take shape, a Washington Post-ABC News survey found that public disapproval of Obama’s handling of the economy has reached a record high, 59 percent.

The poll found that Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney are tied among all Americans in a hypothetical race for president. It gave Romney a slight edge, less than the margin of error.

Seventeen months before the election, unemployment is 9.1 percent. When Obama took office, it was 7.8 percent. Most economists think the rate will be above 8 percent.