While President Barack Obama hailed the one-year anniversary of the
economic stimulus law that dedicated $787 billion into the economy,
Republicans on Capital Hill continued to hammer Obama on the decision.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was passed a year ago
Wednesday and Obama said that it was “an accomplishment that staved
off another Great Depression and kept up to 2 million Americans on the
job.”
However, Kansas Republicans in Congress say that the bill was costly
and a “debt-financed blunder.”
“One year ago President Obama took a trillion taxpayer dollars for the
so-called stimulus package and promised it would be the answer to all
our economic troubles,” U.S. Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan. said. “He told
America it would keep unemployment under eight percent and create
thousands of jobs immediately. Unfortunately, unemployment has soared
to 10 percent and more than 3 million Americans have lost their jobs.”
Obama, in a story by The Associated Press, even delighted in
recounting a section of his State of the Union address last month in
which he talked of the tax cuts from the stimulus plan and watched
Republican lawmakers fail to applaud the idea.
“They were all kind of squirming in their seats ... It was interesting
to watch,” Obama said.
But other lawmakers were not so congratulatory.
“I opposed the President’s stimulus plan last year because I did not
believe it was the right plan to put Kansans back to work,” U.S. Rep.
Lynn Jenkins, R-Kan. said. “Here we are one year later, and while the
White House predicted 33,000 jobs would be created in Kansas, the fact
of the matter is that our state has actually lost 47,100 jobs over the
past year. From Atchison to Galena, folks in eastern Kansas continue
to ask, ‘where are the jobs?’”
According to figures from the AP, the United States lost 8.4 million
jobs since the beginning of the recession in December 2007.
But, Obama said that the stimulus plan is “on target to create 1.5
million more jobs” bringing up the estimated total to 3.5 million.
“I have called for repeal of this spending scheme since the beginning
because taxpayers deserve to get their money back from this failed
program,” Tiahrt said. “We must get government out of the way and
cultivate opportunities for businesses to thrive using conservative,
free-market principles.”
In an interview on CBS’s “The Early Show” Vice President Joe Biden
said that taxpayers have “gotten their money’s worth” out of the
stimulus plan. He defended the program against accusations by
Republican critics that it hasn’t been the job-manufacturing machine
that the administration promised.
“Kansans need jobs, and I will continue working on responsible plans
to jumpstart the economy without burying future generations deeper in
debt that this generation was not responsible enough to pay for
ourselves,” Jenkins said.
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While President Barack Obama hailed the one-year anniversary of the
economic stimulus law that dedicated $787 billion into the economy,
Republicans on Capital Hill continued to hammer Obama on the decision.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was passed a year ago
Wednesday and Obama said that it was “an accomplishment that staved
off another Great Depression and kept up to 2 million Americans on the
job.”
However, Kansas Republicans in Congress say that the bill was costly
and a “debt-financed blunder.”
“One year ago President Obama took a trillion taxpayer dollars for the
so-called stimulus package and promised it would be the answer to all
our economic troubles,” U.S. Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan. said. “He told
America it would keep unemployment under eight percent and create
thousands of jobs immediately. Unfortunately, unemployment has soared
to 10 percent and more than 3 million Americans have lost their jobs.”
Obama, in a story by The Associated Press, even delighted in
recounting a section of his State of the Union address last month in
which he talked of the tax cuts from the stimulus plan and watched
Republican lawmakers fail to applaud the idea.
“They were all kind of squirming in their seats ... It was interesting
to watch,” Obama said.
But other lawmakers were not so congratulatory.
“I opposed the President’s stimulus plan last year because I did not
believe it was the right plan to put Kansans back to work,” U.S. Rep.
Lynn Jenkins, R-Kan. said. “Here we are one year later, and while the
White House predicted 33,000 jobs would be created in Kansas, the fact
of the matter is that our state has actually lost 47,100 jobs over the
past year. From Atchison to Galena, folks in eastern Kansas continue
to ask, ‘where are the jobs?’”
According to figures from the AP, the United States lost 8.4 million
jobs since the beginning of the recession in December 2007.
But, Obama said that the stimulus plan is “on target to create 1.5
million more jobs” bringing up the estimated total to 3.5 million.
“I have called for repeal of this spending scheme since the beginning
because taxpayers deserve to get their money back from this failed
program,” Tiahrt said. “We must get government out of the way and
cultivate opportunities for businesses to thrive using conservative,
free-market principles.”
In an interview on CBS’s “The Early Show” Vice President Joe Biden
said that taxpayers have “gotten their money’s worth” out of the
stimulus plan. He defended the program against accusations by
Republican critics that it hasn’t been the job-manufacturing machine
that the administration promised.
“Kansans need jobs, and I will continue working on responsible plans
to jumpstart the economy without burying future generations deeper in
debt that this generation was not responsible enough to pay for
ourselves,” Jenkins said.
