Wealth and Investing Center

Boehner on government job losses: "So be it"

Related Topics

WASHINGTON | Tue Feb 15, 2011 2:48pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner took a hard line on Tuesday on prospects of federal workforce job losses stemming from Republican spending cuts, saying "so be it."

The House has begun debating legislation that would cut $61 billion from current spending for the remainder of the fiscal year ending on September 30, equivalent to a 14 percent reduction.

At a press conference, Boehner was asked about the impact of the spending cuts.

"Over the last two years since President Obama has taken office, the federal government has added 200,000 new federal jobs." Boehner said. "If some of those jobs are lost in this, so be it. We're broke."

Democrats challenged Boehner's 200,000 figure and cited estimates of about 20,000 more federal workers since Obama took office in 2009.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner warned Republicans on Tuesday against cutting spending too quickly, calling for gradual deficit reduction to avoid endangering the economic recovery.

(Reporting by Thomas Ferraro and Richard Cowan; Editing by Bill Trott)
Money
We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/
Comments (2)
DPender wrote:
So Geithner is afraid of damaging the fragile recovery? That’s liberal speak for: “We don’t want any of our government workers to lose their jobs.” I guess it’s OK for the poor private sector schmucks to be out of work!

Feb 15, 2011 5:26pm EST  --  Report as abuse
observer2011 wrote:
What people don’t understand is that when we say we need to increase jobs, it needs to be in the private sector! Private sector jobs make money through commodities and services. Government jobs do not make money, they only take money and increase the budget deficit. So yes, cut government jobs and create them in the private sector.

Feb 15, 2011 8:28pm EST  --  Report as abuse
This discussion is now closed. We welcome comments on our articles for a limited period after their publication.
See All Comments »