The House Republican plan to cut about $61 billion from the federal budget in the next seven months could cost about 700,000 jobs through 2012, according to a new report from Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi.
Republicans are hitting back at the report, arguing that Zandi -- an advocate of the Democrats' 2009 economic stimulus package -- cannot be trusted as an objective economist. Zandi has advised both Democrats and Republicans, including Republican Sen. John McCain during his 2008 presidential bid.
"The fact that a relentless cheerleader for the failed 'stimulus' - which the Democrats who run Washington claimed would keep unemployment below eight percent - refuses to understand that ending the spending binge will help the private sector create jobs is sad, but not surprising," said Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor also pointed to Zandi's affiliation with the stimulus package, noting that the stimulus failed to keep unemployment levels as low as promised. (The stimulus did manage to save or create millions of jobs.)
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You might remember that Republicans supported the stimulus until Obama did. Then they began fibbing about it.
