Will Loyal Obama-Reid Ally Again Support Tax-Spend-And-Borrow Agenda?
As President Barack Obama prepares to call tonight, in a nationwide address, for a reported $400 billion in new “stimulus” spending – to be paid for later with new debt and job-killing tax hikes – where does his loyal ally, Congresswoman Shelley Berkley, stand?
Notably, Nevadans have heard this same jobs rhetoric from Obama and Berkley for the last several years. Exactly a year ago, Obama promised a “plan that would start putting Americans to work right away.”
And as she helped Obama and her Washington party bosses ram their $787 billion spending binge into law, Berkley claimed it would ‘create or save’ 34,000 Nevada jobs, and her bosses in the Obama Administration claimed it would hold unemployment below 8 percent.
But in reality, the United States has lost 2.4 million jobs since Obama took office, the country is now in its 31st consecutive month of above-8-percent unemployment and Nevada has become the unemployment capital of the country.
Now, The New York Times reports that Obama’s latest “stimulus” plan will cost “hundreds of billions of dollars,” and Bloomberg reports that the Obama White House says they “will call on Congress to offset the cost of the short-term jobs measures by raising tax revenue in later years” – in other words, spend the money now, but make Americans pay later with job-killing tax hikes.
“When it comes to jobs, Nevadans have been listening to the same empty promises from embattled Congresswoman Berkley, Leader Reid and President Obama for the last several years,” said NRSC spokesman Jahan Wilcox. “It’s painfully clear that Obama and Berkley’s liberal tax-spend-and-borrow economic agenda has made Nevada the unemployment capital of the country and Berkley will continue to have a very difficult time explaining her failed jobs record to Nevada voters.”
Background Information:
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)
The Obama Administration Promised The Stimulus Would “Save Or Create” 3.5 Million Jobs And Keep The National Unemployment Rate Under 8 Percent
“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)
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)
