"With 1.6 million fewer private sector jobs than at the start of President Obama's administration, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Wednesday that it's critical to pass legislation for hiring teachers and police because public sector employees are losing their jobs while "private sector jobs have been doing just fine."
Speaking on the Senate floor on Wednesday, Reid was lamenting the complaints from opponents of a 5 percent tax on people who make more than $1 million a year, and offered his take on the need to pass the $35 billion stimulus portion of President Obama's American Jobs Act, which includes funding for municipal and state workers.
The president's jobs plan failed to get approval in the Senate last week as a whole package, and Reid announced earlier this week that he would bring up the stimulus call for a vote as soon as possible.
"The massive layoffs we have had in America today, of course, are rooted in the last administration, and it is very clear that private sector jobs are doing just fine. It's the public sector jobs where we have lost huge numbers, and that's what this legislation is all about," he said.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, during President Obama's term, the number of government employees has dropped by 607,000 since January 2009 and 905,000 since April 2010, at the peak of government hiring for the 2010 Census."
