| One Year After Declaring “Recovery Summer,” Stimulus Failure Continues To Highlight Tester’s Reckless Spending, Broken Promises
WASHINGTON — In case liberal U.S. Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) lost track of the date and forgot to remind Montanans, it’s been a full year since Tester and his 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 Tester and the Democrats’ “Recovery Summer,” it’s worth examining a few of the claims he and his fellow liberal Democrats made regarding their failed $787 billion stimulus debacle. For instance… · The Obama administration claimed their stimulus would “save or create 3.5 million jobs before 2011,” and Tester claimed it would “rebuild America’s struggling economy by creating millions of new jobs.” 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 Tester’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 Tester claimed the stimulus was “a big victory for middle-class folks in Montana,” 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. “Jon Tester still believes it was a good idea for him and his fellow Washington Democrats to add $787 billion to our national debt in order to lose 1.9 million jobs – and that tells Montanans all they need to know about whether they can trust his judgment,” said National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) spokesman Chris Bond. |
FACT CHECK:
| FACT CHECK: TESTER & OBAMA’S $787 BILLION STIMULUS FAILED TO CREATE PROMISED JOBS WHILE DRIVING OUR
NATIONAL DEBT PAST $14.3 TRILLION
STIMULUS RHETORIC:
· Tester Said The Stimulus Would Create “Millions Of New Jobs” And Cut Taxes “By Hundreds Of Billions Of Dollars.” “Both of Montana’s U.S. Senators today voted in favor of a plan to rebuild America’s struggling economy by creating millions of new jobs, investing in long-term infrastructure, and cutting taxes by hundreds of billions of dollars. Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester voted to pass the Jobs Bill, formally known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.” (Senator Jon Tester, “Baucus, Tester Vote For Final Jobs Bill, At Least $626 Million For Montana,” Press Release, 2/13/09)
· “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)
· Tester Said He Looked At The Stimulus As A “Jobs Bill,” And Said “We Needed Something To Really Put People Back To Work. I Think This Bill Does That.” MADDOW: “First of all, I know you were a big supporter of the stimulus bill. So, congratulations to you on that legislation passing the Senate today. I have to ask you if you expect to see big changes in the conference committee before the president signs it?” TESTER: “Well, I really don’t. And I really look at it as a jobs bill, Rachel. I think that, you know, when you have the unemployment rates like we’ve had over the last three months, we needed something to really put people back to work. I think this bill does that.” (MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show,” 2/10/09)
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)
· “‘The Word “Stimulus” Is A Washington, D.C., Word That Doesn’t Mean Much In My Book,’ Tester Said. ‘That’s Why—From Day One—I Have Called This The Jobs Bill. Because That’s Exactly What It Is. You’re Either For Jobs. Or You’re Against Jobs . . . .’” (Senator Jon Tester, “Tester To Congress: ‘You’re Either For Jobs Or Against Jobs,’” Press Release, 2/11/09)
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:
· Tester Called The Stimulus A “Jobs Bill,” And Said It Was A “Big Victory For Middle-Class Folks In Montana.” “‘This Jobs Bill is a big victory for middle-class folks in Montana who are paying a tough price after years of failed economic policies,’ Tester said. ‘This Jobs Bill will rebuild our economy from the ground up by putting folks to work and investing in people. We won’t get out of this mess overnight, but passing the Jobs Bill is an important first step, and it will pay us back for generations to come.’” (Senator Jon Tester, “Baucus, Tester Vote For Final Jobs Bill, At Least $626 Million For Montana,” Press Release, 2/13/09)
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 |
