Felix Salmon: Does John Boehner know what paychecks are made of?

[flpoljunkie]

Emphasis mine

Does John Boehner know what paychecks are made of?

JUL 8, 2011 09:25 EDT

It’s incredibly difficult to work out what is the most depressing part of today’s truly gruesome jobs report. The shrinking number of people in the labor force? The rise in U-6, broad underemployment, to 16.2%? The sharp spike in the newly unemployed? The downward revisions to April and May? The downtick in total hours worked? Maybe it’s the way that people leaving government jobs, for whatever reason, are finding it impossible to find new jobs in the private sector.

For me, it’s none of these things — it’s not, in fact, anything inside the report at all. Instead, it’s the reaction to the report from John Boehner:

“The American people are still asking the question: where are the jobs? Today’s report is more evidence that the misguided ‘stimulus’ spending binge, excessive regulations, and an overwhelming national debt continue to hold back private-sector job creation in our country. Legislation that raises taxes on small business job creators, fails to cut spending by a larger amount than a debt limit hike, or fails to restrain future spending will only make things worse – and won’t pass the House. Republicans are focused on jobs, and are ready to stop Washington from spending money it doesn’t have and make serious changes to the way we spend taxpayer dollars. We hope our Democratic counterparts will join us and seize this opportunity to do something big for our economy and our future, and help get Americans back to work.”

Opinions of the budget deficit and the national debt differ — some people think they’re a huge and important issue which needs to be dealt with in an urgent and serious way, while others think that the whole issue is overblown and that the debt is doing little if any harm at all to the US economy. But whichever side you stand on that debate, it’s downright bonkers to think that, at the margin, government spending reduces job creation, while pushing for ever-larger spending cuts is the way to be “focused on jobs”.

more...

http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/07/08/does-john-boehner-know-what-paychecks-are-made-of/

[girl gone mad]

1. The President has also repeatedly said the government can't create jobs.

Clowns to the right, jokers to the left.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

2. No, but he knows what checks from the Energy industry are made of because he handed them

out on the floor of the House and was never held accountable for it. Never reprimanded. Never investigated. But, oh yeah, Obama is not different now, is he? :sarcasm:

[Canuckistanian]

3. No, those were checks from the Tobacco Industry

Energy checks are handed out at GOP retreats.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

4. Yep! That's right. How soon I forget... n/t