Stimulus Still Not Working, Yet House Dems Want to Gamble on More Taxpayer Money

October 13, 2009

FYI, a version of the release below went out to the following districts: John Adler (NJ-03); Jason Altmire (PA-04); Michael Arcuri (NY-24); John Barrow (GA-12); Melissa Bean (IL-08); John Boccieri (OH-16); Leonard Boswell (IA-03); Bruce Braley (IA-01); Chris Carney (PA-10); Travis Childers (MS-01); Gerry Connolly (VA-11); Kathy Dahlkemper (PA-03); Joe Donnelly (IN-02); Steve Driehaus (OH-01); Chet Edwards (TX-17); Brad Ellsworth (IN-08); Bill Foster (IL-14); Gabby Giffords (AZ-08); Bart Gordon (TN-06); Alan Grayson (FL-08); John Hall (NY-19); Debbie Halvorson (IL-11); Phil Hare (IL-17); Martin Heinrich (NM-01); Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (SD-AL); Baron Hill (IN-09); Jim Himes (CT-04); Steve Kagen (WI-08); Mary Jo Kilroy (OH-15); Ron Kind (WI-03); Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ-01); Larry Kissell (NC-08); Ron Klein (FL-22); Suzanne Kosmas (FL-24); Dan Maffei (NY-25); Betsy Markey (CO-04); Jim Marshall (GA-08); Eric Massa (NY-29); Jerry McNerney (CA-11); Harry Mitchell (AZ-05); Dennis Moore (KS-03); Glenn Nye (VA-02); David Obey (WI-07); Tom Perriello (VA-05); Gary Peters (MI-09); Ciro Rodriguez (TX-23); Loretta Sanchez (CA-47); Mark Schauer (MI-07); Kurt Schrader (OR-05); Carol Shea-Porter (NH-01); Ike Skelton (MO-04); Zack Space (OH-18); Harry Teague (NM-02); Dina Titus (NV-03); Tim Walz (MN-01); David Wu (OR-01); and John Yarmuth (KY-03).

Stimulus Still Not Working, Yet House Dems Want to Gamble on More Taxpayer Money

Will Dina Titus Support Pelosi’s Second Stimulus?

Washington– With 15.1 million people out of work, a 9.8% unemployment rate, and a bloated federal deficit it is evident that the Democrats’ trillion dollar stimulus isn’t working. But despite these alarming numbers, House Democrats are willing to gamble on a second stimulus offering more ways to tax, spend and borrow. With a government-takeover of healthcare looming and a National Energy Tax pending, another stimulus would prove even more detrimental to taxpayers. After supporting the first failed stimulus, will Dina Titus gamble with more Nevada taxpayer money?

“Dina Titus had the option to vote for a Republican version which would have created more jobs at a faster pace with a lower cost, but instead proved to be reckless with Nevada taxpayer money by voting for Nancy Pelosi’s failed stimulus,” said NRCC Communications Director Ken Spain. “Now, having led the nation into heaps of debt and the biggest federal deficit in history, Titus and her party are intent on spending billions of taxpayer dollars on frivolous expenditures while middle-class families in Nevada are suffering. With that kind of record of fiscal irresponsibility, can Nevadans really trust another Democrat stimulus?”

Democrats asked the “American people to trust them with an unprecedented level of funding to address the economic emergency.” But their promises have fallen flat as 7.2 million jobs have been eliminated since the recession began.

“We cannot overstate the importance of this effort. We are asking the American people to trust their government with an unprecedented level of funding to address the economic emergency. In return, we must prove to them that their dollars are being invested in initiatives and strategies that make a difference in their communities and across the country.” (Memorandum to Head of Departments and Agencies, www.Recovery.gov, February 9, 2009)

With all signs pointing to a jobless recovery despite passing a trillion dollar stimulus plan, is it really a good idea for Dina Titus to ask Nevada families to open their check books to fund a second Democrat stimulus?

“Democrats are scrambling to define a new plan to boost the economy as unemployment hurtles toward politically perilous double digits, after months of insisting that talk of another stimulus package was premature.” (Steven Dennis, “New Economic Plan Weighed,” Roll Call, 10/13/2009)

BACKGROUND:

How Democrats Have Spent Taxpayer Money:

· $50,000 grant for the Frameline film house, which recently screened Thundercrack, “the world’s only underground kinky art porno horror film, complete with four men, three women and a gorilla.” (Joseph Abrams, “Stimulus Bill Funds Go to Art Houses Showing ‘Pervert’ Revues, Underground Pornography,” Fox News, July 31, 2009)

· $25,000 grant to help fund the weekly production of “Perverts Put Out” at San Francisco’s CounterPULSE, whose “long-running pansexual performance series” invites guests to “join your fellow pervs for some explicit, twisted fun.”(Joseph Abrams, “Stimulus Bill Funds Go to Art Houses Showing ‘Pervert’ Revues, Underground Pornography,” Fox News, July 31, 2009)

· $25,000 grant for “The Symmetry Project,” a dance piece by choreographer Jess Curtis. The show depicts “the sharing of a central axis, [as] spine, mouth, genitals, face, and anus reveal their interconnectedness and centrality in embodied experience,” according to a description offered on Curtis’ Web site. (Joseph Abrams, “Stimulus Bill Funds Go to Art Houses Showing ‘Pervert’ Revues, Underground Pornography,” Fox News, July 31, 2009)

· $219,000 grant for a psychology professor at Syracuse University to study the “hookups” of 500 freshmen women. (Michelle Breidenbach, “Stimulus funding for Syracuse University sex study questioned,” (Syracuse Post-Standard, Aug. 24, 2009)

· $850,000 for a backup runway at the Murtha Johnstown-Cambria Airport, named after Chairman of the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee, Rep. John Murtha (D-PA). While the airport can handle the largest commercial jets, it is served by only six commercial flights a week, and those are small planes.(Tom Schatz, “Stimulus not stimulating,” Citizens Against Government Waste, May 29, 2009)

$3.4 million for a wildlife crossing, otherwise known as an “eco-passage.” It will serve as an underground wildlife road-crossing for turtles and other animals that live in Lake Jackson, Florida. (The Florida Office of Economic Recovery, accessed June 2, 2009.)

· $9.38 million to renovate a 97-year-old train station building that has sat vacant for more than 30 years. (Michael Yoder, “Elizabethtown Amtrak project feted,” Lancaster Newspapers, April 4, 2009)

· $2.5 million to dead people from the Social Security Administration (SSA) who blames a strict mid-June deadline for mailing out $250 checks to 10,000 deceased persons. (Dead Woman Gets Federal Stimulus Check: Son Wants To Keep Check As Souvenir,” WBAL-TV, May 12, 2009)

· $578,661 to the Town of Union New York, which did not request the money, to spend on a homeless problem it does not have. (Nancy Dooling, “$578,661 for Union Homeless Questioned,” Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin, March 5, 2009)

###