Bernanke's Analysis Of GOP Budget Is Ammo For Dems

After Federal Reserve Chief Ben Bernanke estimated on Wednesday that the GOP’s budget would result in the loss of a couple hundred thousand jobs, Democrats beefed up their assault on the plan.

“How many jobs are Republicans willing to destroy?” asked a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

Bernanke, top economist Mark Zandi and analysts from Goldman Sachs have all predicted in recent days that the budget, which includes $61 billion in spending cuts, would be catastrophic for economic growth. Zandi estimated that the plan would cost 700,000 jobs, while a recent Goldman report found that it would reduce GDP by 2%.

Bernanke, in testimony before the House Financial Services Committee today, called the potential job loss “not trival.”

However, House Republicans continued on Wednesday to defend their package, singling out Zandi in particular.

“The fact that a relentless cheerleader for the failed ‘stimulus’ - which the Democrats who run Washington claimed would keep unemployment below eight percent - refuses to understand that ending the spending binge will help the private sector create jobs is sad, but not surprising,” said a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).

GOP leaders have also pointed to a new report put out by Stanford University economist John Taylor that disproves the estimates performed by both Zandi and Goldman Sachs.

“There is no convincing evidence that H.R. 1 will reduce economic growth or total employment,” Taylor wrote in a recent blog-post. “To the contrary, there is more reason to expect that it will increase economic growth and employment as the federal government begins to put its fiscal house in order and encourage job-producing private sector investment.”