Today in Things That Will Come Back To Haunt You: On the Senate floor this morning, Majority Leader Harry Reid touched on the new unemployment numbers released today, using unfortunate language.
“Today is a big day in America. Only 36,000 people lost their jobs today, which is really good,” he said.
The video is already making the rounds on conservative blogs and is on the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s web site.
Of course, Reid meant “really good” relative to what a lot of people thought would happen.
“The unemployment rate around America has not changed. Prognosticators thought it would go up, and it has not,” he went on. He also lauded the Senate’s unemployment benefits extension bill passed earlier this week.
“There are about 15 million people out of work,” he said. “These extended unemployment benefits will help millions of those people.”
Late update: Reid came back to the floor this afternoon to explain his comments, “especially in light of how they’re being irresponsibly misrepresented by those seeking to score political points.”
He pointed out that economists had predicted much higher losses. Bloomberg, for example, surveyed analysts and predicted 68,000 jobs would be lost.
“That number is still too high,” Reid said. “But … I was glad this morning when I heard that the employment number proved the pundits wrong by 50%.”
