Yesterday, John Boehner (R-OH) dismissed concerns that Republican-proposed budget cuts would cost federal employees their jobs, saying,
If some of those jobs are lost so be it. We're broke.
And when a reporter asked him if he had any idea of how many jobs he was talking about, Boehner said, "I do not."
Dana Milbank at the Washington Post checked:
Well, Mr. Speaker, I do. I checked with budget expert Scott Lilly of the Center for American Progress, and, using the usual multipliers, he calculated that the cuts - a net of $59 billion in the last half of fiscal 2011 - would lead to the loss of 650,000 government jobs, and the indirect loss of 325,000 more jobs as fewer government workers travel and buy things. That's nearly 1 million jobs - possibly enough to tip the economy back into recession.
And why not? After all, a faltering economy going in to 2012 is a bonus for Republicans. And as I pointed out yesterday, apparently we're not entirely broke since Boehner is protecting 7,000 jobs in his own district with the $3 billion worth of pork going towards an alternate engine for the Joint Strike Fighter. A project that the Pentagon says it doesn't want and doesn't need.
But Ohio needs jobs, and in 2012, John Boehner will need votes, so ... so be it.
