Strange reactions to July 8 jobs report

Felix Salmon over at Reuters (see here) doesn't understand the reactions to this morning's jobs report, particularly the reaction from John Boehner (and neither do I).  Congressman Boehner's office released the following statement this morning (see here):

“The American people are still asking the question: where are the jobs? Today’s report is more evidence that the misguided ‘stimulus’ spending binge, excessive regulations, and an overwhelming national debt continue to hold back private-sector job creation in our country. Legislation that raises taxes on small business job creators, fails to cut spending by a larger amount than a debt limit hike, or fails to restrain future spending will only make things worse – and won’t pass the House. Republicans are focused on jobs, and are ready to stop Washington from spending money it doesn’t have and make serious changes to the way we spend taxpayer dollars. We hope our Democratic counterparts will join us and seize this opportunity to do something big for our economy and our future, and help get Americans back to work.”

What?  As Mr. Salmon asks:  "Does John Boehner know what paychecks are made of?"  And then he gives a sound reply:

Opinions of the budget deficit and the national debt differ — some people think they’re a huge and important issue which needs to be dealt with in an urgent and serious way, while others think that the whole issue is overblown and that the debt is doing little if any harm at all to the US economy. But whichever side you stand on that debate, it’s downright bonkers to think that, at the margin, government spending reduces job creation, while pushing for ever-larger spending cuts is the way to be “focused on jobs”.

Reasonable people can disagree over political priorities, but it does not advance the quality of the debate to continue to make claims that are ..... bonkers.  Yet, in this political climate, one often hears some version of Mr. Boehner's claim from all sorts of people.