Obama Claims U.S. Econ. Would Be 'Much Better Off' If There Were More Public Sector Employees

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President Barack Obama during a speech Tuesday in Chattanooga, Tenn., said the U.S. economy would be “much better off” if there were more public sector employees.

The president referred specifically to public sector jobs that have been lost due to sequestration.

“If those layoffs had not happened, if public sector employees grew like they did in the past two recessions, the unemployment rate would be 6.5 instead of 7.5,” the president said. “Our economy would be much better off, and the deficit would still be going down because we would be getting more tax revenue.”

“Instead of using a scalpel to get rid of programs we don’t need and keep vital investments that we do, the same group has kept in place this meat cleaver called the sequester that is just slashing all kinds of investments in education and research and our military,” he said.

“Sequestration” refers to the automatic March 1 spending that took effect due to the president’s and Congress’ inability to reach a budget deal.

“Instead of using a scalpel to get rid of programs we don’t need and keep vital investments that we do, the same group has kept in place this meat cleaver called the sequester that is just slashing all kinds of investments in education and research and our military,” he said.

“Yet all the things that are needed to make this country a magnet for good middle class jobs, those things are being cut. These moves don’t just hurt our economy in the long term. They hurt our middle class right now,” he added.

The president continued, emphasizing the damage that has been done to public sector jobs since he took office in 2009.

“Over the past four years, another 700,000 workers at the federal, state and local levels of government lost their jobs. These are cops and firefighters,” he said. “About half of them are people that work in our schools. Those are real jobs. It doesn’t help a company like Amazon when a teacher, cop or a firefighter loses their job. They don’t have money to place an order. That’s hundreds of thousands of customers who have less money to spend.”

“If those layoffs had not happened, if public sector employees grew like they did in the past two recessions, the unemployment rate would be 6.5 instead of 7.5,” Obama said. “Our economy would be much better off, and the deficit would still be going down because we would be getting more tax revenue.”

The White House on Tuesday offered Republicans a so-called “grand bargain” on job creation that would cut corporate tax rates and increase spending on federal jobs programs. Calling it just a remix of the same tired ideas, Republican leaders rejected the president’s proposal, adding that it might have been helpful if they learned of the plan from the White House and not the Associated Press.

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(H/T: CNSNews.com). Getty Images.

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