In Sparks: Ryan says Obama is ‘really bad’ at creating jobs

SPARKS — Vice presidential hopeful Paul Ryan hammered away at the state of the economy Friday saying the Obama administration hasn’t kept its pledge to fix the nation.“If we want the next four years to be any different from the last four years, we need a new president,” Ryan told a crowd of supporters at the Peterbilt Truck Parts and Equipment company.It was Ryan’s first visit to Nevada since becoming Romney’s running mate. Romney is expected in Reno next week for the annual National Guard convention.Ryan made the trek to Nevada the day after Obama accepted the Democratic nomination for a second term and the same day another disappointing jobs report was issued by the Labor Department. That report said nearly 100,000 jobs had been created in August, but Ryan said for every one who got a job, “four people stopped looking for a job — they gave up.”He said there are 23 million looking for work, adding that the unemployment rate has been above 8 percent for 43 months and the average household income has declined.Ryan said he and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney have a plan to fix the nation, start paying down the deficit and get people back to work.He said that includes tapping the energy and minerals in the U.S. to create jobs.“We need to make more things in America and grow more things in America and sell them overseas,” he said. “And we need to stop spending money we don’t have.”Ryan, a Republican congressman from Wisconsin, said the president has presented Congress with four budgets containing trillion dollar deficits and that the U.S. Senate hasn’t passed a budget in three years despite the law requiring them to every year.“This is not governing,” he said. “This is kicking the can.”He said President Obama “is not a bad guy.”“He’s just really bad at creating jobs.”Ryan told the crowd Romney’s business experience is vital to fixing the nation’s problems, adding that, at Bain Capital, “(Romney) created nearly tens of thousands of jobs” — a claim Democrats have disputed saying Romney’s company laid off thousands of workers as it restructured companies.Ryan said when Romney was governor of Massachusetts he worked across the aisle, with a legislature that was heavily democratic, to cut spending and “balance the budget without raising taxes.”Democrats also dispute that, saying spending increased every year of Romney’s term and that Romney raised numerous fees to get more revenue.Ryan said the coming election may well be the most important current voters will ever participate in because it’s not just about taxes and spending.“It goes down to what kind of people we want to be,” he said. “What kind of country we want to have.”He said the U.S. “is a country founded on an idea.”Rep. Mark Amodei and Peterbilt owner John Phillips introduced Ryan to the crowd. Amodei kicked off the event with a slap at the patriotism of Democrats saying, “We’re going to start with a uniquely Republican thing — the Pledge of Allegiance.”