Democrats don't rush to fix embarrassing GOP typo

Democrats are perfectly content to let the Republicans' embarrassing typo stay on the books for now.

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters at a breakfast sponsored by The Christian Science Monitor Wednesday that Democrats won’t consent to fixing a typo in the House’s latest jobs bill.

A version of the bill posted on the House Rules Committee website calls for putting a freeze on significant regulatory actions until the “average of monthly employment rates for any quarter … is equal to or less than 6.0 percent.”

Republicans missed a crucial “un” before the word employment, changing the bill’s intent. According to the version, no major regulations would take place until unemployment hits 94 percent.

“I’m astounded by this,” Hoyer told reporters at the breakfast. “Absolutely, dumbfounded.”

“I know Republicans read bills. My, my, my how carefully the Republicans read bills.”

When the typo was discovered Tuesday, Rules Committee spokesman Doug Andres said Republican members “hope to fix the error by unanimous consent, and we hope the Democrats will cooperate with us.”

Erica Elliott, spokeswoman for House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, expressed bafflement at the Democrats’ stance.

“Unemployment in America has been above 8 percent for 41 straight months,” she said. “The fact that the Democrats are making a crusade out of a typo shows their lack of commitment to serious debate about how to get this country back on track.”

Erica Martinson contributed to this report.