Mitt Romney defends his job-killing plan to lay off firefighters, police officers and teachers

Well, that's a very strange accusation. Of course teachers and firemen and policemen are hired at the local level and also by states. The federal government doesn't pay for teachers, firefighters, or policemen. So obviously that's completely absurd.

Roughly $1 out of every $9 spent on public schools comes from the federal government—that's a lot of teachers. More than one hundred thousand cops have been hired thanks to federal funding. In the past two fiscal years, Congress has spent more than $600 million each year on fighting fires. (And Republicans love that money: You may recall Rick Perry begged President Obama for fire fighting aid last year after cutting the Texas fire fighting budget.)

Here's Mitt Romney's explanation for why he's not out of touch for having mocked President Obama's plan to help state and local governments hire more firefighters, police officers and teachers:But as HuffPost's Michael McAuliff writes , the federal government actually does exactly what Romney says it does not: It provides billions to fund the hiring of the firefighters, cops and teachers that Romney wants to see laid off. Specifically:

The only absurd thing here is that Mitt Romney thinks it's a good idea to keep on letting good public servants lose their jobs.