About the Sequester — Even the Main Stream Media had to laugh at Maxine Waters' " ... jobs losses -- over 170 Million jobs that could be lost" line

What people like Jay Leno won’t tell is that when you hear something like what Waters said and close your eyes, it really sounds a lot like Obama himself talking about the same things

On Friday night right at the opening of the show, Jay Leno took the stage and said, “Welcome sequestration survivors. Yes!” ***  “As you know, Congress did not reach an agreement.... and Congresswoman Maxine Waters said today that 170 million jobs could be lost because of it.” *** Leno looked around and then explained,  “Now, there are only 155 million workers in America, yet, she says we'll lose 170 million jobs.” ***  "Beginning to understand why we're in this situation in the first place now?" he asked. "Is it starting to become clear why everything isn't quite well?” (See “Leno: Maxine Waters 170 Million Job Loss Stupidity Explains 'Why We're in This Situation in the First Place’” by Noel Sheppard, 3/2/13, Newsbusters  [http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2013/03/02/leno-blames-maxine-waters-170-million-job-loss-claim-why-everything-i#sthash.ogl3Kmuv.dpuf]).

For those not up on the story, last Thursday Congresswoman Rep. Maxine Waters made a statement on that “over 170 million jobs that could be lost” as a result of the mandated budget cuts under Budget Control Act, the so-called “Sequester” or “Sequestration.” Of course that claim or threat was patently impossible and rendered the remark ludicrous. Fox News started off the reporting on the almost radical California Democrat’s remarks with this, “Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) claimed today that "over 170 million jobs" could be lost due to sequestration. Later in the presser, Rep. Waters corrected herself, saying it was only "750,000 jobs" that could be lost....” ( “Maxine Waters: 'Over 170 Million Jobs Could Be Lost' Due To Sequestration” by Fox News Nation, 3/1/13 [http://nation.foxnews.com/jobs/2013/02/28/maxine-waters-over-170-million-jobs-could-be-lost-due-sequestration]). The Fox News report included a video link to the Maxine Waters’ speech and also gave this extended quote so that it couldn’t be said that Ms. Waters had been taken out of context:
“[Approximately 30 seconds into video] Yesterday we did have Mr. Bernanke in our committee and he came to tell us what he’s doing with quantitative easing and that is trying to stimulate the economy with the bond purchases that he’s been doing because he’s trying to keep the interest rates low and jobs – and he said that if sequestration takes place, that’s going to be a great setback. We don’t need to be having something like sequestration that’s going to cause these jobs losses, over 170 million jobs that could be lost – and so he made it very clear he’s not opposed to cuts but cuts must be done over a long period of time and in a very planned way rather than this blunt cutting that will be done by sequestration. As you know in this committee we have all of HUD and HUD is responsible for so many programs that determine the quality of life for women and families. CBDG, a form of grant programs will be cut by $153 million dollars, these are grants that help with cities and children and low-income programs. We also will cut the Home Program by $52 million if sequestration takes place, Native American Housing grants by $34 million, House and Choice grants $113 million, Public Housing – mostly single women in Public Housing – another $304 million, and homelessness, everybody claims to be concerned with homelessness and the growing number of women and children who are out their homeless but look they will take a $99 million dollar hit and on and on and on. We are here today, one more time, talking about women and children and families and how we can protect our women, children, and families and have a decent quality of life – sequestration will set us back, all of the gains that we have made will be lost with sequestration.”

Starting only a short time after her speech, the right wing blogosphere lit up like a Christmas Tree over Congresswoman Waters’ blunder. By around 5:30 PM Thursday, Harry Gural, a spokesman for Rep. Waters, told  The Daily Caller in an email that the congresswoman “obviously misspoke – she meant 170 thousand, not 170 million, jobs.” ( “Politics
UPDATED: Maxine Waters: ‘Over 170 million jobs could be lost’ due to sequestration” by Jeff Poor, 3/1/13,  The Daily Caller [http://dailycaller.com/2013/02/28/maxine-waters-exaggerates-over-170-million-jobs-could-be-lost-due-to-sequestration/#ixzz2MPqos7hb]).

Soon, conservative commentators were describing the remarks as something that was more typical of radical left-wingers like Waters. Despite a spokesman for the congresswoman having said  that Rep.Waters merely misspoke, Mark Steyn of the National Review said he wasn’t so sure that Waters didn’t intend exactly what she said.  According to Steyn, Waters and many other Democratic members of congress are “economically illiterate.” “It may well be that Maxine Waters has absolutely no idea  —  could not reliably name the population of this country, or the number of people in employment at any one time.” (See “Mark Steyn not so sure Maxine Waters misspoke with her ’170 million job’ loss sequester claim” by Jeff Poor, 3/1/13, Daily Caller [http://dailycaller.com/2013/03/01/mark-steyn-not-so-sure-maxine-waters-misspoke-audio/#ixzz2MOd99kVh]). After all,  isn't Mark Steyn's take on Waters' gaff just a non-humorous version of what Jay Leno had to say about it?

[Btw, there is no explanation as to why the number mentioned in spokeman Harry Gural’s “correction” of Congresswoman Waters’ remarks —  “...170,000 jobs” was floated instead of the  originally “corrected” number “...750,000 jobs” mentioned in the Fox coverage, other than the "170,000" number  fits the misspeaking narrative a little better.]

In any case, over the last two weeks, the White House has made equally outrageous claims as to the effect of the sequester on jobs and the like. So is there any real difference when listening to Barack Obama or Maxine Waters making similar ridiculous claims, inflammatory predictions and doomsday scenarios.