U.S. Capitol official: Obama wrong on janitors' pay cut

President Obama speaks to the media about sequestration in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, D.C. / SAUL LOEB / AFP / Getty Images

During his news conference to announce that he and congressional leaders failed to avert the sequester cuts going into effect tonight, President Obama gave several examples of people who will be directly affected by the cuts. It turns out, however, that one of those examples was in error.

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Obama warns of Capitol janitor pay cut

"[A]ll the folks who are cleaning the floors at the Capitol -- now that Congress has left, somebody is going to be vacuuming and cleaning those floors and throwing out the garbage -- they're going to have less pay," Mr. Obama said. "The janitors, the security guards, they just got a pay cut, and they've got to figure out how to manage that. That's real."

The president's mention prompted Carlos Elias, the superintendent of the U.S. Capitol building and the Capitol Visitors Center, to email his employees within hours of Mr. Obama's comment.

"The pay and benefits of EACH of our employees WILL NOT be impacted," Elias wrote.

• Sequester: "It's just dumb," Obama says

"There was a specific mention in the news today by a high ranking official that said 'The employees that clean and maintain the US Capitol will receive a cut in pay' (not specific quote but very close to it)," Elias continued.

"This is NOT TRUE," wrote Elias. "Therefore, I request that you please notify all of our employees about the importance of ignoring media reports."

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Edu. Sec. on sequester: "Not rocket science" to stop "dumb cuts"

The president's apparent error comes days after critics of the administration's messaging on the sequester's effects pointed out Education Secretary Arne Duncan's failure to back up a claim he made on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday.

"There are literally teachers now who are getting pink slips, who are getting notices that they can't come back this fall," Duncan said on Sunday.

When pressed days later at a news conference, Duncan pointed out only one school district that was handing out pink slips and added, "whether it's all sequester-related, I don't know."

Kanawha County, W.V., the district in question, later said that the layoff notices they're handing out would affect a handful of teachers and would have been handed out sequester or no.

[farmmike]

Did all of the members of congress take a pay cut?

[lamestreamnews]

Perhaps Mr Elias should have emailed this to his employees: "Therefore, I request that you please notify all of our employees about the importance of ignoring the president"

personally, that is much better advice

[klclark70]

Did you notice that the last question wasn't answered? why don't these journalist, if that's what they're trying to be, stick with the question until it's answered? I would have asked him how exactly did he plan on keeping children safe? We know that in Chicago gun laws doesn't work. We are paying ridiculously stupid people in govt. Why don't they cut stupid spending programs? They could start by cutting out the $100K that we pay for Obama's dog's caretaker. and isn't there another program that studies how trout react to turtles? (this isn't correct, but it's as stupid as this) Stop giving money there. And stop giving our enemies money. How stupid is this administration?

[GTime68]

Do you hear how this man talks to us? "This is real." As if what? It wasn't real? We don't need Obama to tell us average folks out here what is real and what isn't. Clearly, this man is the only unreal thing about the last 4 years. And the only thing that's "dumb" is him. He hasn't been able or willing to get a darn thing done about the economic mess in our country. "Dumb" is the word of the week for them. It suits them.

[rodnsue55]

Who cares look at the big picture. We are hurting here. I did not lose sleep over this. How did we get here? How can we get out of the problems? We have the best of the best to clear this up. Let them do their job.

[GTime68]

Let them do their job? Who the heck is getting in their way? Nobody. This man doesn't want to work. The Slacker-In-Chief just wants everyone to do what he says. He's got all the answers for everybody.

[knsn_for_cmn_sense]

That does not happen in the Chi Town Gangsta White House.

Bet the White House Official doesnt have a J-O-B for long.

What a good way to cut the budget tho!

[ccb5508]

amazing the lies he will spew when republicans won't go along with raising taxes again-

[ccb5508]

obama caught in another lie?? The only surprising thing, is that now, the media is actually starting to report it!

[GTime68]

Yes that harpie Nora O'Donnell will be crying in her chardonay over this unless someone gives her a script to read blaming it on someone else.

[hunho]

He is the most powerful man in the world, but cannot do anything about it.Really!! He could be a great president in the history but choose to be something opposite!! He could be like Nelson Mandella,who can unite everyone to be one for the country, but he has done opposite!! His heart is filled with hatred and that is toxic for america.

[GeWay]

I bet Mr. Elias job security isn't very good right now, not because of sequestration, but because he publicly refuted something the boss, the president, said. I imagine he's already looking for a new job.

[larry5877]

"The president's apparent error "

Why not just call it what is was ... a blatant lie and scare tactic ... that backfired.