First Stimulus Was a Failure, Now House Dems Want to Hit the Accelerator on More Wasteful Spending

Washington- It’s been more than 18 months since John Callahan’s Democrat friends passed a trillion-dollar stimulus bill promising to keep unemployment under eight percent and create four million jobs and, so far, one thing is clear: It’s an utter failure. With unemployment at an unacceptably high 9.6 percent, the economy in a complete tailspin and the nation deeply in debt, Democrats now want to ram through a $50 billion spending bill in a last ditch attempt to salvage their crumbling political careers. Clearly not learning from their first stimulus disaster, will Callahan support Washington Democrats’ efforts to put Americans on the hook once again for more wasteful spending with another desperate political ploy?

“The Democrats’ failed trillion-dollar stimulus has driven the economy off a cliff, yet they’re gearing up to support another round of wasteful spending in a desperate attempt to save their crumbling political careers,” said NRCC Communications Director Ken Spain. “Washington Democrats promised to keep unemployment under eight percent and create four million jobs, but it’s abundantly clear that the out-of-touch Democrat majority is only capable of offering up empty promises. After being buried under mountains of debt and higher taxes, struggling middle-class families are ready for sound economic solutions rather than political satire.”

“Vowing to find new ways to stimulate the sputtering economy, President Barack Obama will call for long-term investments in the nation’s roads, railways and runways that would cost at least $50 billion… Administration officials wouldn’t say what the total cost of the infrastructure investments would be, but did say the initial $50 billion represents a significant percentage. Officials said the White House would consider closing a number of special tax breaks for oil and gas companies to pay for the proposal.”

“With the unemployment rate ticking up to 9.6 percent, and polls showing the midterm elections could be dismal for Democrats, the president has promised to unveil a series of new measures on the economy.” (Julie Pace, “Obama calling for more infrastructure spending,” Associated Press, 9/06/2010)

House Democrats have had plenty of time to turn the economy around, but they’ve messed up so badly that they’re even turning their backs on each other:

“In the next two weeks, Democratic leaders will review new polls and other data that show whether vulnerable incumbents have a path to victory. If not, the party is poised to redirect money to concentrate on trying to protect up to two dozen lawmakers who appear to be in the strongest position to fend off their challengers.”

“With the midterm campaign entering its final two months, Democrats acknowledged that several races could quickly move out of their reach, including re-election bids by Representatives Betsy Markey of Colorado, Tom Perriello of Virginia, Mary Jo Kilroy of Ohio and Frank Kratovil Jr. of Maryland, whose districts were among the 55 Democrats won from Republicans in the last two election cycles.” (Jeff Zeleny and Carl Hulse, “Democrats Plan Political Triage to Retain House,” New York Times, 9/04/2010)