Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Zaid Jilani, Pat Garofalo, and Alex Seitz-Wald
The Progress Report
February 18, 2010
Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of the day that President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA, i.e. the stimulus) into law. "One year later, it is largely thanks to the Recovery Act that a second depression is no longer a possibility," said Obama. "So far, the Recovery Act is responsible for the jobs of about 2 million Americans who would otherwise be unemployed. These aren't just our numbers; these are the estimates of independent, nonpartisan economists across the spectrum." Indeed, as the New York Times' David Leonhardt detailed, "perhaps the best-known economic research firms are IHS Global Insight, Macroeconomic Advisers and Moody's Economy.com. They all estimate that the bill has added 1.6 million to 1.8 million jobs so far and that its ultimate impact will be roughly 2.5 million jobs." The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, meanwhile, estimates that the stimulus saved or created between 800,000 and 2.4 million jobs. The gross domestic product also grew at an inflation-adjusted annual rate of 5.7 percent last quarter, much of which can be attributed to the stimulus package. "The economy has shed some three million jobs over the past year, but it would have lost closer to five million without stimulus," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com and former adviser to Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) presidential campaign. "The economy is still struggling, but it would have been much worse without stimulus." However, Republicans are using the Recovery Act's anniversary as an opportunity to continue making false claims and clouding public perception regarding its effectiveness.
GOP HYPOCRISY: "One year later, one thing is clear: the stimulus bill has failed," said Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) added, "This was not the plan Americans asked for or the results they were promised." However, Republicans are not so down on the stimulus when it comes to trumpeting money in their home states and districts. A new report by The Progress Report released yesterday documents 110 Republicans -- more than half of the GOP caucus -- who are "guilty of stimulus hypocrisy," as they voted against the act but have since claimed credit for its benefits or asked for more funding. For instance, McConnell has returned to Kentucky to brag about money for the Blue Grass Army Depot; Rep. Steve King (R-IA) "issued an upbeat statement" about stimulus dollars dedicated to widening U.S. Highway 20 in Iowa; and Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) has hosted multiple job fairs populated by stimulus recipients looking to hire. Plus, the Wall Street Journal reported that "more than a dozen Republican lawmakers supported stimulus-funding requests submitted to the Department of Labor, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Forest Service." As MSNBC's Rachel Maddow put it, "[O]n policy terms, [Republicans] have been caught bragging on the stimulus as good policy." However, Republicans are steadfastly refusing to concede that their actions are hypocritical, with Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) writing that there is nothing wrong with trying to claim stimulus money if Democrats are "hellbent to spend the money anyway."
GUBERNATORIAL GAMES: Congressional Republicans aren't the only ones taking advantage of Recovery Act money after criticizing the bill that provided it. For instance, Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) has said that it is "ludicrous" to claim that the recovery act boosted the economy, while characterizing stimulus money as "misdirected" and "largely wasted." He recently added that "just sending some cash out as a Band-Aid is not going to solve the problem." However, this week, Pawlenty released his proposal to balance his state's budget, and as the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported, "nearly one-third of the governor's budget fix would rely on $387 million in federal stimulus money." Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA), meanwhile, thanked Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius this week for $24 billion in money to upgrade health care information that came from the recovery act. McDonnell said in a statement that "the federal funding awarded to Virginia will...provide our physicians with the technological tools they need to provide the highest quality service possible." However, McConnell has previously criticized the stimulus as "massive new federal spending" that "is not going to be good long-term for America" (though he also added that Virginia should "collect its share" anyway).
IMPERILED SENATE JOBS BILL: Yesterday, Obama said, "If we're honest, part of the controversy [regarding the stimulus] also is that despite the extraordinary work that has been done through the Recovery Act, millions of Americans are still without jobs." Indeed, the recovery act is doing what analysts expected it would, but in an economy that is weaker than anticipated. Currently, due to conservative misinformation, only 6 percent of the public believes the stimulus created any jobs and additional jobs legislation, though necessary, is imperiled in the Senate. Late last year, the House of Representatives passed a $154 billion jobs package, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said that he doesn't have the votes to even begin debate on a very scaled down $15 billion bill. As the Center for American Progress' David Madland wrote, "To give a sense of how big this jobs hole is, we would need to create 350,000 jobs per month for the next 24 months just to recover what we have lost since the recession began, and that's not even compensating for population increases." Still, Senate Republicans have said that, in order for them to consider a jobs package, it has to include various non-jobs related tax extenders and a promise to consider cutting the estate tax, providing a huge tax break to the heirs of multi-millionaires. Republicans even criticized Reid for removing billions of dollars in tax breaks from the proposed legislation that they admitted wouldn't have created any jobs.
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