Posted on August 15, 2012

Frank: Unemployment Would Be Below 8% If We Had More Public Workers

On the Wednesday night broadcast of Current TV's "Viewpoint," outgoing Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) explained how cutting federal spending has hurt the economy. Frank also shared why he believes unemployment is above 8% and how to fix it.



"When you cut back so substantially, you're not just doing social harm, you're doing economic harm because you do not have the spending power in the economy that you ought to have. Look, again, it's now clear," Rep. Frank said.



"We would have unemployment below 8% if it weren't for the fact that Republican policies have forced cities and states to lay off 700,000 people. Firefights, police officers, teachers, public works employees, people who collect garbage, people who shovel snow because they've been hit by the property tax collapse. So, they have been losing. We've tried to help them out and the Republicans say no, we have to preserve tax cuts for the wealthy, we've got to send money overseas to the military in useful ways, and the result has been 700,000 jobs lost from state and local governments over these past couple years," he said.