Rep. Robert Hurt

Each month, the Labor Department issues its jobs report (or its unemployment report, depending on your point of view.) And for the past year, almost as soon as the report came out, the responses from politicians flowed in.

They were quite predictable.

Democrats would point to the increase in jobs and say, we’re headed in the right direction, we need to stay the course.

Republicans would say the number of jobs added wasn’t good enough and we need to change course.

Today, we have the first jobs report since the election — and we’ve heard barely a peep from our legislators! Only Rep. Robert Hurt, R-Chatham, has put out a statement that we’ve seen. As you’ve likely heard, this report shows the economy adding more jobs than expecting, and unemployment falling to its lowest rate since 2008 (although the effects of Superstorm Sandy may have skewed the numbers).

Here’s what Hurt has to say (and yes, it fits into the predictable category described above):

“While any drop in unemployment numbers is encouraging news, we are discouraged by the growing number of Americans who are giving up the search for work due to a downtrodden economy throughout the past four years. Fifth District Virginians have struggled through unacceptably high unemployment for too long, and the looming prospect of tax hikes on all Americans at the year’s end only further threatens our fragile economy. It is time for Washington to come together to address the great challenges that we face. We must return to our founding principles of limited government, free enterprise, and individual liberty, to put an end to the reckless spending and get Americans back to work. More stimulus style spending will not create jobs for 5th District Virginians; we must first focus on creating certainty for our small businesses by keeping taxes low and reducing our debt so they may create the jobs that this country so desperately needs.”