In a statement Congressman Mike Arcuri said, "I am deeply disappointed to learn of the loss of these jobs and the devastating effect it has on Federal Reserve employees and their families. We're seeing yet another irresponsible cut by this Administration of vital services and jobs in Upstate New York. My office will do all it can to help these employees and their families stay on their feet during this transition."
The only problem being that Federal Reserve employees don't work for the government, they work for the member banks of the Reserve. The "Administration" could no more cut the budget of the Reserve Banks than they could cut the budget at Target or K-Mart since, by law, the Reserve system receives no appropriations from the Federal government.
I know people tend to doze off during civics classes, but you would think a sitting Congressman would, you know, understand how these things work. Blaming the "Administration" for the loss of these jobs is about as silly as thinking New York isn't a border state.
A few striking mistakes were made during his talk, including a repeatedly botched pronunciation of the word Dubai (which was corrected by an audience member), and the attribution of Social Security's creation to Truman, instead of Roosevelt. Arcuri also referred to New York as being "not a border state," during a discussion about immigration.
Er...never mind.
