Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) took on Fox Business Thursday night in a headed discussion over jobs and the economy.
"We have gained since the turnaround more than 4 million private sector jobs, but that's been dragged down by the loss of some 700,000 public sector jobs because of what I think [are] erroneous public policies," Frank said to Fox Business anchor Melissa Francis. "But I do think... a combination of those things can't guarantee a fast recovery. It can do what it can do is to make things better than they otherwise would have been."
Francis said the 8.2 percent unemployment rate takes some of the shine away from the 4 million new jobs touted by Frank.
"I understand the Fox perspective on all of this," Frank answered.
"No, those are numbers," Francis shot back. "Those are numbers."
"Please don't interrupt me," Frank said. "May I? Tell me when I can talk."
"Please talk," Francis said.
Frank reiterated his argument that failed public policies have to the decrease in middle class jobs.
"Yes, I said those are the numbers. You said from the absolute bottom. That's a relevant place to measure," Frank said. "Barack Obama inherited the worst economy in 80 years and we've begun to improve. ... We've had what I think are mistaken public policies so that the unemployment number is higher than it would have been by several tenths of a percent because we have forced the firing by state and local goverment of teachers and firefighters and police officers and public works employees.
"And the question is, given how bad off we were, given the restraints in the rest of the world, are we doing better or worse than we would have with a different set of policies?"
