Obama & Manchin’s Endless Summer…

One Year After “Recovery Summer” Declared, Stimulus Failure Continues To Highlight Manchin’s Reckless Spending, Broken Promises

WASHINGTON — In case liberal U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) lost track of the date and forgot to remind West Virginians, it’s been a full year since his fellow Washington Democrats declared that it was “Recovery Summer,” promising that their $787 billion in reckless deficit spending – which Manchin enthusiastically supported – would fix America’s ailing economy.

So, to mark the one-year anniversary of Manchin and the Democrats’ “Recovery Summer,” it’s worth examining a few of the claims Manchin and his bosses in the Obama Administration made regarding their $787 billion stimulus debacle.  For instance…

• The Obama administration claimed their stimulus would “save or create 3.5 million jobs before 2011,” and Manchin claimed it would “make a big difference in the job market.”  But America has lost nearly 1.9 million jobs since he helped ram the stimulus into law.  As President Obama admitted this week, “[s]hovel-ready was not as … uh .. shovel-ready as we expected.”

• While Manchin’s party bosses predicted the Democrats’ stimulus would keep unemployment below 8 percent, unemployment nearly two-and-a-half years later is 9.1 percent – and has remained above 8 percent for 28 consecutive months.

• And while Manchin promised West Virginians that his friend President Obama was “not just throwing money at this (recession). He wants to make sure there are investments and value,” a report shows that stimulus funds have been spent on a large number of outrageous non-job-related projects, including a study to determine the effects of cocaine on monkeys, iPods for high school students, cell phones for smokers trying to quit, and advertising devoted to the promotion of the stimulus bill itself.

“Joe Manchin still believes it was a good idea for President Obama and his fellow liberal Democrats to add $787 billion to our national debt in order to lose 1.9 million jobs – and that tells West Virginians all they need to know about whether they can trust his judgment in Washington,” said National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) spokesman Chris Bond.

FACT CHECK: OBAMA & MANCHIN’S $787 BILLION STIMULUS FAILED TO CREATE PROMISED JOBS WHILE DRIVING OUR

NATIONAL DEBT PAST $14.3 TRILLION

STIMULUS RHETORIC:

• “The Obama administration is defending its claim that the $787 billion economic stimulus plan will save or create 3.5 million jobs before 2011 even while conceding that unemployment will likely continue to rise beyond its earlier predictions.” (Stimulus plan will create or save 3.5 million jobs, White House says, Associated Press, 05/11/09)

• In February 2010, Manchin Said The Stimulus Would “Make A Big Difference In The Job Market.” Q “Looking back at the success of the stimulus package, there seems to be a sense that a lot of states are making hard decisions and maybe it wasn’t such a great thing after all. Do you share that assessment? Do you think it’s fair?” . . . Gov. Manchin: “There’s an awful lot of that money that is coming out now going towards infrastructure — projects, state by state, I think it will make a big difference in the job market.” (Press Conference With Governor Joe Manchin (D-WV) et al, 2/22/10)

STIMULUS REALITY:

• Our Country Has Lost Nearly 1.9 Million Jobs Since The Stimulus Passed In February 2009. (Matt Clover, “1.9 Million Fewer Americans Have Jobs Today Than When Obama Signed Stimulus,” CNS News, 6/14/11)

• President Barack Obama: “Shovel-ready was not as … uh .. shovel-ready as we expected.” (President Barack Obama, Fox News, 06/13/11)

STIMULUS RHETORIC:

• President Obama’s Economic Advisors Christina Romer And Jared Bernstein Predicted Unemployment Would Not Rise Above 8 Percent If The Stimulus Was Passed. (Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein, “The Job Impact Of The American Recovery And Reinvestment Plan,”1/9/09)

STIMULUS REALITY:

• The Unemployment Rate Is 9.1 Percent And Has Remained Above 8 Percent For 28 Straight Months. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, www.bls.gov, Accessed 6/3/11)

STIMULUS RHETORIC:

• “Manchin Said, ‘He’s [Obama’s] Not Just Throwing Money At This (Recession). He Wants To Make Sure There Are Investments And Value.’” (George Hohmann, “Manchin Says Obama Here To Help,” Charleston [WV] Daily Mail, 12/3/08)

STIMULUS REALITY:

Stimulus Dollars Have Been Thrown At Dubious, If Not Outrageous, Projects, Including:

• $2 million to capture and study exotic ants
• $71,000 to study how monkeys react under the influence of cocaine
• $750,000 to develop a computerized choreography program that could lead to a YouTube-like “Dance Tube” online application
• $554,000 to replace windows at a Washington visitor center with no plans to reopen the visitor center
• $54 million to develop a building for the Mohegan Tribe in Connecticut that will also serve as a practice facility for the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun women’s professional basketball team
• $300,000 to study whether Integral Yoga can be an effective method to reduce hot flashes in menopausal women
• $194,000 to study people’s perceptions of federal stimulus spending.

SOURCE: Sens. Tom Coburn and John McCain, “Summertime Blues: 100 Stimulus Projects That Give Taxpayers The Blues,” msnbcmedia.msn.com, 8/10