Marc A. Thiessen over at Washington Post reminds us that Obama's so-called gaffe when saying "the private sector is just fine", while Obama was attempting to show the public sector was in trouble compared to the private sector, it truly was not a gaffe at all as liberals are asserting it is. In reality it is a Democratic talking point which was also used six months ago by Harry Reid.
Since Obama, liberals and the great Obama excuse makers insist his comments were taken out of context, what he really meant, via Paul Krugman, "That was an unfortunate line. The president bungled the line. The truth is, the private sector is doing better than the public sector, which is not well enough."
Really???
Did he seriously go there?
Mr. Thiessen provides the numbers, the official unemployment rate of public sector vs private sector.
Obama and Reid have it precisely backward: It’s the public sector that’s doing fine. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate for government workers last month was just 4.2 percent (up slightly from 3.9 percent a year ago). Compare that to private-sector industries such as construction (14.2 percent unemployment), leisure and hospitality services (9.7 percent), agriculture (9.5 percent), professional and business services (8.5 percent) and wholesale and retail trade (8.1 percent). As Andrew Biggs of the American Enterprise Institute points out, the public-sector unemployment rate “is the lowest of any industry or class of worker, even including the growing energy industry.” If the rest of Americans enjoyed the same unemployment rate as government workers, Obama would be cruising to reelection.
Meanwhile, the private sector continues to struggle under the weight of Obamacare, the spiraling national debt, the $46 billion in annual costs of the new regulations imposed by Obama, and the looming threat of “taxmageddon” — when, come January 2013, the private economy will get hit with hundreds of billions in higher taxes.
Perhaps someone should send Krugman the memo or even the link to the BLS and maybe read it to him since it appears those things are a little beyond his capabilities.
