Vice President Biden keeps recycling his unemployment speeches – except he keeps confusing suburbs of his hometown of Scranton:
1. On October 19, he used Minooka:
My pop — my grandpop used to say — there was a suburb of Scranton called Minooka. He said, “When the guy in Minooka’s out of work, it’s an economic slowdown. When your brother- in-law’s out of work, it’s a recession. When you’re out of work, it’s a depression.” Well, it’s a depression — it’s a depression for millions of Americans, through no fault of their own.
2. On October 30, 2009, he used Dickson City (the correct spelling):
My grandpop used to have an expression. We’re from Scranton. He’d say — and I mean this literally. It wasn’t viewed as a joke. He said, “Joey, when the guy in Dixon City,” a small town above Scranton, “is out of work, it’s an economic slowdown. When you’re brother-in-law is out of work, it’s a recession. When you’re out of work, it’s a depression.” And it’s a depression for millions of American people.
3. On December 3, 2009, at the White House jobs summit, he used Throop:
There used to be an expression, and I’m not joking, my grandfather always used it. He was from Scranton, Pennsylvania. He said, “When the guy from Throop is out of work, it’s an economic slowdown. When your brother-in-law is out of work, it’s a recession. When you’re out of work, it’s a depression.” And it is a depression for over 10 million Americans…
For the record, there are currently almost 16 million unemployed Americans, not 10 million, as the Vice President said today. And Harry Truman is the apparent original author of this quote, minus the reference to Scranton suburbs:
“It’s a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it’s a depression when you lose yours.”
Harry S Truman, in Observer, April 13, 1958