WASHINGTON — In case liberal U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) lost track of the date and forgot to remind Missourians, it’s been a full year since she and her fellow Washington Democrats declared that it was “Recovery Summer,” promising that their $787 billion in reckless deficit spending would fix America’s ailing economy.

So, to mark the one-year anniversary of McCaskill and the Democrats’ “Recovery Summer,” it’s worth examining a few of the claims she and her party bosses made regarding their failed $787 billion stimulus.  For instance…

·         The Obama administration claimed their stimulus would “save or create 3.5 million jobs before 2011,” and McCaskill claimed it was “about creating jobs.”  But America has lost nearly 1.9 million jobs since she 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 her 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 McCaskill claimed the stimulus was “about creating jobs,” 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.

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

As McCaskill herself said, if she and her fellow Washington Democrats failed to stimulate job creation, “we’re going to have some explaining to do” (click below to see video).

Not surprisingly, Missourians are still waiting on McCaskill to do “some explaining,” as she promised.  Perhaps she was too busy trying to explain her failure to pay more than $300,000 in taxes on her private aircraft.

FACT CHECK: McCASKILL & OBAMA’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)

·         McCaskill Said “We’ve Said All Along In The Stimulus . . . We’re Trying To Keep Job Losses From Being As Great.” McCaskill: “. . . What you’re seeing is jobs — job loss is always a lagging indicator. It’s not a leading indicator in a recession. And we’ve said all along in the stimulus, besides the tax cuts, which people forget to mention, a huge chunk of tax cuts, money going right back into the pockets of the American people, we’re trying to keep job losses from being as great. Even when we were debating the stimulus, we kept saying over and over again there was going to continue to be significant job loss. It’s a matter of whether or not we can keep from that job loss being as severe as it could be had we not done the stimulus.” (ABC’s “This Week,” 3/8/09)

STIMULUS REALITY:

·          Our County 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:

·         McCaskill: “The Stimulus Bill Was About Two Things, Cutting Taxes, One Of The Largest Tax Cuts In America’s History — 40 Percent Of The Spending In That Bill Is Going Back Into The Pockets Of The American People — And 60 Percent About Creating Jobs.” (CNN’s “Newsroom,” 3/3/09)

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