Dems Find it Hard to Admit Their Spending Habit

October 17, 2011

Many House Democrats Refuse to Publicly Confess Their Love for Stimulus 2.0

Democrat Leader Nancy Pelosi and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer finally signed on as the first two co-sponsors of Obama’s second stimulus late last week—legislation that the White House claims 95% of Democrats support and that was introduced almost one month ago.
Only a handful of other House Democrats claim to support Stimulus 2.0, but have yet to sign on as cosponsors. Apparently House Democrat leaders aren’t even asking their members to support the bill they claim their members support. With the president’s approval ratings tanking and the Democrats’ first stimulus an utter failure, it’s not hard to see why this might not be the best time to sign-up for Stimulus 2.0.

Meanwhile, Democrats won’t even call their new “stimulus” by its name and are continuing to dial back their job-creation claims for their first failed stimulus spending spree.

BACKGROUND

Democrat Leader Nancy Pelosi and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer finally signed on as the first two co-sponsors of Obama’s second stimulus late last week—legislation that the White House claims 95% of Democrats support and that was introduced almost one month ago:

PELOSI AND HOYER NOW THE ONLY TWO HOUSE DEMOCRATS OFFICIALLY COSPONSORING STIMULUS 2.0: (Thomas.gov, Accessed 10/16/2011)

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ SAYS DON’T PAY ATTENTION TO COSPONSOR LIST, SUPPORT IS “WIDESPREAD”: “Well, the co-sponsorship is really not reflective of the widespread support that exists in the Democratic caucus and in the country for the American Jobs Act.” (CNN’s “State of the Union,” 10/16/2011)

WHITE HOUSE: “95 PERCENT” OF DEMOCRATS SUPPORT STIMULUS 2.0: “The White House said its package enjoys the support of 95 percent of Democrats and that by the end of the year it will be clear to voters that Obama and his party are trying to work for more jobs while Republicans are obstructing progress.” (Sam Youngman and Russell Berman, “Rep. Cantor rejects Obama, says president’s jobs package is dead,” The Hill, 10/3/11)

FLASHBACK TO A MONTH AGO: DEMOCRAT LEADER NANCY PELOSI SAID “OUR CAUCUS IS VERY UNIFIED” ABOUT OBAMA’S NEW STIMULUS AND TAX HIKES. “Dem Leaders Pelosi adds ‘Our caucus is very unified about the American Jobs Act’ responding to ?s about some Dems not liking Obama plan” (Tweet from Kelly O’Donnell,NBC News, 9/15/2011)

RETIRING DEM: “YOU HAVE TO WORK TO GET ZERO”: “‘There must be a reason,’ Kildee said. ‘You have to work to get zero [co-sponsors].'” (Mike Lillis, “Obama Jobs Bill Has Three Co-Sponsors, Top House Dem Predicts ‘Dozens’ More,” The Hill, 10/15/2011)

Only a handful of other House Democrats claim to support Stimulus 2.0, but have yet to sign on as cosponsors:

REP. LEONARD BOSWELL (D-IA) HELD A PRESS CONFERENCE TO TOUT SUPPORT FOR STIMULUS 2.0: (Pat Curtis, “Vilsack, Boswell Tout President’s Jobs Bill,” Radio Iowa, 10/10/2011)

REP. BEN CHANDLER (D-KY) GOES OUT ON A LIMB FOR OBAMA’S SECOND STIMULUS: “U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler said Wednesday that he supports President Barack Obama’s $447 billion jobs plan, although the Republican-led House is not expected to vote on the plan soon, if ever.” (John Cheves, Chandler Urges Support for Obama’s jobs plan,” Kentucky Herald-Leader, 10/6/2011)

BUDGET RANKER VAN HOLLEN (D-MD) SAYS “SIGN ME UP” — CAN’T HE DO THAT HIMSELF?: “‘I’m confident that it will pick up co-sponsors – lots of ’em,’ he said. ‘Sign me up.'” (Mike Lillis, “Obama Jobs Bill Has Three Co-Sponsors, Top House Dem Predicts ‘Dozens’ More,” The Hill, 10/15/2011)

Apparently House Democrat leaders aren’t even asking their members to support the bill they claim their members support:

REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE (D-TX): ” ‘If they said go down and put your name on it, we’d go down there like we had wings,’ she said.” (Mike Lillis, “Obama Jobs Bill Has Three Co-Sponsors, Top House Dem Predicts ‘Dozens’ More,” The Hill, 10/15/2011)

With the president’s approval ratings tanking and the Democrats’ first stimulus an utter failure, it’s not hard to see why this might not be the best time to sign-up for Stimulus 2.0:

REUTERS: “DEMOCRATS WARY OF THEIR UNPOPULAR PRESIDENT”: “Many of McCaskill’s fellow Democrats in Congress may also decide they are too busy to be with Obama, whose approval rating of about 40 percent as the economy struggles threatens to be a drag on their own reelection chances next year.

” ‘You may see a number of Democrats say ‘Sorry, I have a scheduling conflict,’ ‘ said a senior Democratic lawmaker.” (Thomas Ferraro, “Democrats Wary of Their Unpopular President,” Reuters, 10/11/2011)

GALLUP TRACKING: OBAMA AT 38% APPROVAL, 54% DISAPPROVAL: (“Gallup Daily: Obama Job Approval,” Gallup, 10/11/2011)

“DEMOCRATS FACE A BIG DECISION ABOUT WHETHER TO STAND BY THEIR MAN IN THE NOVEMBER 2012 ELECTIONS”: “Democrats face a big decision about whether to stand by their man in the November 2012 elections.

“Many, particularly those in difficult campaigns like McCaskill, are tempted to keep their distance.” (Thomas Ferraro, “Democrats Wary of Their Unpopular President,” Reuters, 10/11/2011)

BLUE DOGS NOW “TRY[ING] TO PERSEVERE AMID LOW OBAMA POLL NUMBERS”: “Blue Dogs in Congress, already an endangered species following the last election, are bracing for another challenging campaign season. … Redistricting, coupled with President Obama’s low approval ratings, has buoyed GOP hopes of picking up seats in the 2012 election.” (Cameron Joseph, “Conservative Dems Try to Persevere Amid Low Obama Poll Numbers,” The Hill, 9/27/2011)

Meanwhile, Democrats won’t even call their new “stimulus” by its name and are continuing to dial back their job-creation claims for their first failed stimulus spending spree. What will it take for Democrats to learn their lesson?:

WHITE HOUSE NO LONGER TALKING ABOUT JOBS “SAVED OR CREATED”—THE NEW LANGUAGE IS JOBS “SUPPORTED” BY STIMULUS: “The American Jobs Act Will Support Nearly 400,000 Education Jobs—Preventing Layoffs and Allowing Thousands More to Be Hired or Rehired.” (“Teacher Jobs At Risk,” The White House, October 2011)

THINK TANK CALLS OUT WHITE HOUSE FOR LATEST JOB-COUNTING SMOKE-AND-MIRRORS: “The White House has circulated materials asserting that the President’s proposed American Jobs Act (AJA) would ‘support’ nearly 400,000 education jobs. A former colleague of mine has noted that the validity of this claim rests on the definition of the word ‘support,’ prompting a dissection of what exactly the Administration means by this terminology.

“Similar claims were made earlier in the Administration with respect to jobs ‘created or saved’ by the 2009 stimulus package. The many problems with those claims have been amply discussed elsewhere and will not be reviewed here in detail. Suffice it to say that one big problem was that the claims were based primarily on modeling assumptions and could neither be verified nor refuted after the fact, thereby leaving little to no informational value. (Moreover, to the extent that rigorous empirical assessments were subsequently conducted, they have undercut the claims). Of perhaps even greater concern, however, is that the concept of ‘jobs created or saved’ appeared deliberately designed to produce more favorable numbers than the neutral standard of ‘job creation’ commonly applied throughout previous presidencies.” (Charles Blahous, ” ‘Supporting’ 400,000 Education Jobs: An Unsupported Claim,” e21, 10/13/2011)

THE DISAPPEARING STIMULUS:

OBAMA JOBS RE-DO SPEECH USED THE WORD “STIMULUS” ZERO TIMES. (“Address by the President to a Joint Session of Congress,” The White House, 9/8/2011)

OBAMA LAST USED THE WORD “STIMULUS” IN JULY. (“Speeches and Remarks,” The White House, Accessed 10/16/2011)

“GREEN JOBS” APPEARS ZERO TIMES. (“Address by the President to a Joint Session of Congress,” The White House, 9/8/2011)

“CLEAN ENERGY” APPEARS ZERO TIMES. (“Address by the President to a Joint Session of Congress,” The White House, 9/8/2011)

ZERO NET JOBS CREATED BY THE FIRST STIMULUS IN AUGUST 2011. (Lyneka Little and Bill McGuire, “U.S. Employers Added No New Jobs in August,” ABC News, 9/2/2011)

PELOSI TRYING TO RENAME STIMULUS: “Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Democrats have dropped the word ‘stimulus’ from their vocabulary.” (Mike Lillis, “Pelosi Drops the Word ‘Stimulus’,” The Hill, 9/6/2011)

OBAMA’S “NEW AND IMPROVED” JOB PLAN “COULD AMOUNT TO A SIGNIFICANT STIMULUS OF BETWEEN $300 BILLION AND $400 BILLION… BUT [OBAMA] WON’T USE THE WORD”: (David Wessel, “Obama Tries to Rewrite Narrative on Jobs,” The Wall Street Journal, 9/7/2011)

FORMER WH ECONOMIST: MORE STIMULUS, BUT “YOU WON’T HEAR THE S WORD”: “‘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)