Reich Laughed At For Saying Stimulus 'Keeping People Employed'

October 2nd, 2009 1:25 PM

Former Clinton Labor Secretary and current Obama economic advisor Robert Reich was laughed at Friday for claiming "the stimulus package is the thing that is actually keeping the economy up, keeping people employed."

In a discussion on CNBC about the larger than expected September job losses reported Friday by the Labor Department, Reich was explaining to hosts Melissa Francis and Lawrence Kudlow how things would be much worse if not for the stimulus package.

He also implied that things won't get better until healthcare is reformed.

In the middle of this absolutely absurd statement, Francis and Kudlow appeared to look at each other with the former breaking out into laughter and the latter doing his best to hold it back (video embedded below the fold):

Rather than worry about government spending too much, I worry quite frankly about government spending too little. As I said before, the stimulus package is the thing that is actually keeping the economy up, keeping people employed. Without government spending, without the stimulus package, I'm afraid as the Commerce Secretary said, we're going to be in trouble. If we talk about healthcare reform, I'll tell you, we've got to get those, those costs under control and that long-term cost curve down.

Is this how the Obama-loving media are going to report today's terrible economic news: it would be worse without the stimulus package, and it will only get better if we pass healthcare reform?

Stay tuned.