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

WASHINGTON – It’s been a full year since President Obama and Shelley Berkley (D-Las Vegas) declared that it was a “Recovery Summer,” promising that their $787 billion in reckless deficit spending would fix Nevada’s ailing economy.

So, to mark the one-year anniversary of Berkley and the Democrats’ “Recovery Summer,” it’s worth examining a few of the claims Shelley Berkley and her bosses in the Obama Administration made for their failed economic policies.  For instance…

·         Berkley claimed her stimulus would “create or save more than 34,000 jobs.”  But Nevada has lost over 56,000 jobs since the stimulus was rammed into law.  As President Obama admitted this week, “[s]hovel-ready was not as … uh .. shovel-ready as we expected.”

·         Berkley’s stimulus also gave money to tax cheats and used to “create” jobs in fictitious congressional districts – like Nevada 32nd Congressional District.

·         Berkley’s bosses in the Obama Administration predicted the Democrats’ stimulus would keep the national 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 Berkley claimed the stimulus would accomplish critical objectives to get our economy growing again, 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.

“Harry Reid, Shelley Berkley, Byron Georgiou and their liberal friends promised their $787 billion stimulus would ‘create or save’ 34,000 jobs, but more than two years later Nevada has lost over 56,000 jobs,” said National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) spokesman Jahan Wilcox.  “How can Nevadans ever give Berkley another blank check if they know all she is going to do is give away their money to tax cheats or spend it on studies that determine the effect cocaine has on monkeys?”

STIMULUS RHETORIC:

Berkley Promised The Stimulus Would ‘Create or Save’ 34,000 Nevada Jobs

SHELLEY BERKLEY: “From incentives to increase clean energy production to funding for work on I-15 and the Las Vegas Beltway, this [stimulus] package will mean jobs for Nevada at a time when we continue to face record unemployment levels,” said Berkley. “According to the White House, passage of this legislation will create or save 34,000 jobs statewide, with the majority of those in Clark County.”  (Shelley Berkley, Berkley: Report Shows Broad Economic Recovery Package Will Mean More Nevada Jobs, Press Release, 02/12/09)

Since The Stimulus Was Passed Nevada Has Lost Over 56,000 Jobs

·         As Of May 2011, Nevada Has Lost 56,506 Jobs Since The Stimulus Passed In February 2009. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics Website, www.data.bls.gov, Accessed 6/17/11)