Democrats Plan to Borrow, Spend and Repeat

September 7, 2011

Top Democrats Insist on More Failed Stimulus But Now They Dare Not Utter Its Name

Ignoring the jobs report from last Friday that showed zero jobs created in August, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz claimed Tuesday that without the Democrats’ failed stimulus the economy would not be “continuing on the upswing,” doubling down on comments from last week.
Despite her praise for the stimulus, Wasserman Schultz was careful to avoid naming it as the “stimulus.” She’s not the only one. Democrat Leader Nancy Pelosi and many other top House Democrats are similarly avoiding the word “stimulus” even as they call for more of the same failed spending.
House Democrats have friends in the White House backing up their plan to borrow more from countries like China to fund more of the same failed stimulus spending. Democrats are apparently betting they can trick voters by renaming their failed policies of the last two and a half years.

BACKGROUND

Ignoring the jobs report from last Friday that showed zero jobs created in August, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz claimed Tuesday that without the Democrats’ failed stimulus the economy would not be “continuing on the upswing,” doubling down on comments from last week:

DNC CHAIR DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: WITHOUT STIMULUS, “WE WOULD NOT BE CONTINUING ON THE UPSWING”: ” ‘So, every economist you would talk to that is worth their salt acknowledges that without the Recovery Act we would not be continuing on the upswing.'” (Kenric Ward, “What Me Worry? Wasserman Schultz Says Economy ‘On the Upswing,’ Sunshine State News, 9/6/2011)

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ LAST WEEK: “WE’VE BEEN ADDING JOBS IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR FOR 17 STRAIGHT MONTHS. WE ARE ON THE UPSWING EVER SINCE PRESIDENT OBAMA TOOK OFFICE.” (Anthony Man, “Wasserman Schultz Blasts Republicans, Defends Obama, Tears Up on Social Security,” The Sun Sentinel, 8/29/2011)

AUGUST JOBS REPORT: ZERO NEW JOBS, FIRST TIME SINCE FEBRUARY 1945 THAT ECONOMY HAS HAD “MONHTLY NET JOB CHANGE OF ZERO.” (Lyneka Little and Bill McGuire, “U.S. Employers Added No New Jobs in August,” ABC News, 9/2/2011)

Despite her praise for the stimulus, Wasserman Schultz was careful to avoid naming it as the “stimulus.” She’s not the only one. Democrat Leader Nancy Pelosi and many other top House Democrats are similarly avoiding the word “stimulus” even as they call for more of the same failed spending:

“PELOSI AND HOUSE DEMOCRATS HAVE DROPPED THE WORD ‘STIMULUS’ FROM THEIR VOCABULARY”: “Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Democrats have dropped the word ‘stimulus’ from their vocabulary.

“Though the House minority leader and her caucus are still pushing an economic stimulus agenda to save the economy, they’ve radically changed their rhetoric with the hope of winning over voters who saw ‘stimulus’ as close to a dirty word.” (Mike Lillis, “Pelosi Drops the Word ‘Stimulus’,” The Hill, 9/6/2011)

“EVEN THOUGH [THE DEMOCRATS’] FAVORED POLICIES… ARE LARGELY THE SAME.” “Democrats are now being careful to frame their job-creation agenda in language excluding references to any stimulus, even though their favored policies for ending the deepest recession since the Great Depression are largely the same. … Recognizing the unpopularity of the 2009 package, however, Democratic leaders have revised their message with less loaded language – ‘job creation’ instead of ‘stimulus’ and ‘Make it in America’ in lieu of ‘Recovery Act’ – in hopes of tackling the jobs crisis.

“That’s a sharp shift from last year’s messaging strategy, when Pelosi issued hundreds of press releases touting the benefits of the 2009 stimulus bill in hopes of making believers of skeptical voters.” (Mike Lillis, “Pelosi Drops the Word ‘Stimulus’,” The Hill, 9/6/2011)

House Democrats have friends in the White House backing up their plan to borrow more from countries like China to fund more of the same failed stimulus spending. Democrats are apparently betting they can trick voters by renaming their failed policies of the last two and a half years. With ideas like these, is it any wonder the president’s approval ratings continue to hit record lows?:

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION PLANNING MORE STIMULUS:

WHITE HOUSE ADVISER: “OBAMA TO SEEK STIMULUS FUNDS—BUT ‘YOU WON’T HEAR THE S WORD'”: “With President Obama set to unveil his plan for job creation at a Joint Session of Congress next week, a former White House economic adviser said today that economic ‘stimulus’ will be part of the package – but won’t be labeled as such.

” ‘You won’t hear the word ‘stimulus’ — the ‘s word’ — because that just is politically unappealing right now,’ Jared Bernstein, who left his post as Vice President Joe Biden’s top economist in June, told us on ABC’s ‘Top Line’ today. ‘But you will hear targeted measures, which I think is actually a more apt description of what I think the president will talk about.'” (Rick Klein, “Obama to Seek Stimulus Funds—But ‘You Won’t Hear the S Word’,” ABC News’ The Note Blog, 8/31/2011)

BIDEN LAST WEEK: WE NEED MORE STIMULUS, FIRST ONE DIDN’T SPEND ENOUGH MONEY. “Vice President Joe Biden said on Friday the U.S. economy needed more stimulus to get it moving, putting in a plug for government intervention shortly before the White House unveils new proposals to boost job growth. … ‘I think the economy does need more stimulus,’ Biden said… ‘Everybody says we should’ve (had)…a bigger stimulus package. Yeah, we should’ve. I was pushing (for) it,’ he said.” (Jeff Mason, “Biden Says U.S. Needs More Stimulus, Businesses Mad at S&P,” Reuters, 8/26/2011)

DESPITE RECORD LOWS FOR OBAMA IN NEW POLLING:

POLITICO/BATTLEGROUND: “IT’S A ROUGH DAY WHEN THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT A NEW… POLL HAS YOUR APPROVAL RATING AT 45 PERCENT,” DISAPPROVAL AT 50%. (Jonathan Allen, Politico’s “The Huddle”, 9/6/2011)

59% DISAPPROVE OF OBAMA ON ECONOMY, JUST 39% APPROVE. (Carrie Budoff Brown, “Battleground Poll: Obama Approval Rating Down Amid Deep Economic Fears,” Politico, 9/5/2011)

THE WASHINGTON POST POLL: MORE THAN 60% DISAPPROVE OF OBAMA ON THE ECONOMY AND JOBS. (Jon Cohen and Dan Balz, “Obama Ratings Sink to New Lows as Hope Fades,” The Washington Post, 9/6/2011)

OBAMA HITS “NEW CAREER LOW,” 43% APPROVAL, AND 53% DISAPPROVAL, “A NEW HIGH.” (Jon Cohen and Dan Balz, “Obama Ratings Sink to New Lows as Hope Fades,” The Washington Post, 9/6/2011)

NBC/WSJ: OBAMA DISAPPROVAL AT 51%, HIGHEST SINCE INAUGURATION: “A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll of 1,000 adults, taken Aug. 27-31, found that 44% of Americans approve of the job Mr. Obama is doing as president, with more than half, or 51%, disapproving for the first time since his inauguration.” (Jonathan Weisman, “Voter Discontent Deepens Ahead of Obama Jobs Plan,” The Wall Street Journal, 9/6/2011)

HOWEVER, SUPPORT FOR GOP-CONTROLLED CONGRESS ALSO “AT HIGHEST LEVEL” SINCE 1996: “But, voter preference for a Republican-controlled Congress is at its highest level in recent memory, according to the WSJ/NBC poll. Forty-seven percent of registered voters polled say they prefer a GOP Congress and 41 percent say they want Democrats in charge. In October 2010, Democrats were preferred 46-44. It’s the first time Republicans have been riding so high on that question dating back to 1996, the first year in which numbers were made available by the WSJ and NBC.” (Jonathan Allen, Politico’s “The Huddle”, 9/6/2011)