Jack Welch, the former General Electric CEO who just a few months ago accused the Obama administration of manipulating the jobs report, lashed out at President Obama in an interview with CNBC on Thursday.
Welch claimed the economy would be ready to "take off" if it weren't for new regulations, such as Obamacare and Dodd-Frank financial reform, which he said have an "enormous" cost.
"You've got this incredible regulation overload," he said.
There isn't much evidence that regulations are to blame for the slow economic recovery. But the argument that the government is partially to blame for the country's economic woes isn't totally off-kilter. Government spending cuts and the payroll tax hike will slow economic growth this year, according to economists.
More specifically, the government has cut 740,000 jobs since Obama took office, according to Labor Department data. If government employment had stayed the same, the unemployment rate would be lower today, according to the Wall Street Journal and economists such as Dean Baker and Jared Bernstein.
In October, Welch took heat for accusing the Obama administration of making the jobs report look better than it really was. "Unbelievable jobs numbers..these Chicago guys will do anything..can't debate so change numbers," he wrote on Twitter. He later denied referencing the White House.
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