CANTOR’S CONFOUNDING CONFUSION…. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) was asked yesterday about projections showing 700,000 job losses resulting from his caucus’ spending plan. The Republican dismissed the projections and said what really matters is the judgment of the Fed chairman.
“[L]ook, we had the chairman of the Federal Reserve yesterday indicate that the cuts that we were proposing, $61 billion off of the oh-10 levels, were not going to in any way significantly reduce the prospects for growth.”
If Cantor is inclined to take Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s perspective seriously, I’m delighted. Indeed, the House Majority Leader made it sound as if Bernanke’s judgment is the only one that matters.
No problem. It might interest Cantor to know, then, that Bernanke believes the House Republicans’ proposed cuts would slow the U.S. economy and force 200,000 American workers out of their jobs.
What’s more, Bernanke went on to say that plans to cut education and job-training spending — the exactly agenda Cantor’s caucus is pursuing — will undermine America’s competitiveness.
In other words, the one official Cantor is willing to rely on as a credible source for economic projections believe Cantor’s own plan would hurt the economy, cost jobs, and make the nation less competitive.
Remind me, how’d this guy get to be House Majority Leader?
