Feingold Proud of Failed Record and 82,000 Lost Wisconsin Jobs
[Oshkosh, WI] Senator Russ Feingold said Barack Obama is the first president in 70 years to “get the job done” while defending his stimulus and health care votes. The 18-year incumbent and former self-proclaimed deficit hawk also said the trillion-dollar bills are something to be proud of.
In “Feingold defends his record,” the Hudson Star Observer quoted Feingold as saying, “You can win this argument. You just can’t be afraid. You’ve just got to stand up and be proud of the fact that Barack Obama had the guts to be the first president in 70 years to get the job done. It’s something to be proud of!”
“Feingold’s got a different definition of success than 15 million unemployed Americans,” Juston Johnson, Campaign Manager for Ron Johnson for Senate. “National unemployment is at 9.5%, America has lost 2.2 million jobs since the stimulus was signed, and 82,000 more Wisconsin jobs are gone. The job is not done.”
Feingold’s stimulus bill has been a failure, even by his own standards. Three days prior to the signing of the stimulus, Senator Feingold issued a press release saying the stimulus would create 2.4 million jobs in the first year, and about nine million jobs in the first three years. The national economy has lost over 2.2 million jobs since the stimulus was signed.
“Russ Feingold doesn’t have a clue how to create jobs,” Johnson said. “The truth is Wisconsin has been shedding jobs ever since the stimulus passed and Russ Feingold has done nothing but make excuses ever since. Russ Feingold is an out-of-touch, career politician who needs to be held accountable.”
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Facts:
Three days prior to the signing of the stimulus, Senator Feingold issued a press release saying the stimulus would create 2.4 million jobs in the first year, and about nine million jobs in the first three years. (Senator Russ Feingold, “Statement of U.S. Russ Feingold On The Economic Recovery Package,” Feingold Press Office, February 10, 2009.)
The National Unemployment Rate for June 2010 is 9.5%; it was 8.1% in February 2009 when the stimulus was signed. (Source, Bureau of Labor Statistics, www.bls.gov. Accessed July 27, 2010.)
The National Economy has lost over 2.2 Million jobs since the stimulus was signed. (Source, Bureau of Labor Statistics, www.bls.gov, Accessed July 27, 2010.)
Since the Stimulus was signed, the State of Wisconsin has lost 82,000 jobs. (Source, Bureau of Labor Statistics, www.bls.gov, Accessed July 27, 2010)
The incoming Obama White House Economic Team assured Wisconsinites the Stimulus would create 74,000 jobs for the Badger State in two years in January 2009. (Source: White House Press Office, Romer, Christina and Jared Bernstein. “The Job Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan.” January 9, 2009. Accessed July 28, 2010.)
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by briansikma and D R, Ron Johnson. Ron Johnson said: Feingold proud Obama "got the job done" w/stimulus and #hcr. But WI has lost 82,000 since stimulus passed. http://shar.es/mLnkf #wisen [...]
Feingold also defended his vote for the $787 billion Recovery Act.
“Remind people, first of all, that it provided a tax cut to 95 percent of all working Americans on their withholding. That’s one of the largest tax cuts in American history,” he said. “That’s not government spending for the public sector. That’s for everybody. The idea was that they would get the money and they would buy something — which they undoubtedly did. That’s how you stimulate the economy. And I think it helped.”
Tax cuts accounted for $288 billion of the cost of the Recovery Act, according to the government website http://www.recovery.gov. The act provides $275 billon for projects and $224 billion in assistance to state and local governments.
Feingold blasted Republicans for criticizing the use of stimulus dollars to retain teachers and state and local government employees.
Johnson, he said, talks “like public employees are evil.”
“When his house is burning down he doesn’t consider a public employee evil. We saved the jobs of firefighters. When somebody robs one of his kids and they call the police he doesn’t think a public employee is evil. We saved the jobs of many police in this state.”
“Thousands and thousands” of teaching jobs were saved, too, he said.
“Guess what, if those folks wouldn’t have had a job, they wouldn’t have been buying anything and the situation would have been even worse,” he added.
Feingold also attacked Johnson for saying the Recovery Act hasn’t created private-sector employment.
“He’s completely, flat-out not telling the truth … that’s completely wrong,” he said of Johnson.
Feingold said that three days earlier Johnson had visited RexCon, a Burlington company whose CEO lauded the Recovery Act as one of the largest and most comprehensive highway construction bills in the last 30 years.
Feingold said that seven times more highway projects will be completed in the country this year over the past year, and that tens of thousands of weatherization and clean water projects are under way.
“Who do you think is doing that work? It’s not IRS employees,” he said, drawing laughter from his supporters. “It’s your local contractors. Heating and cooling people. You name it. It’s local jobs.”
Feingold also noted that funding for a high-speed rail line between Madison and Milwaukee, and eventually to the Twin Cities, came from the Recovery Act.
He said President Obama was right in saying that people attacking the recovery “are playing politics with the economic recovery of the American people.”
“They are taking advantage of people’s suffering for political reasons and talking down the economy. We are not. We are trying to solve the problem.”
President Obama inherited the worst set of economic problems faced by any president other than Franklin Roosevelt, Feingold said.
There was no budget deficit when President Bill Clinton left office, he said. But “horrible deficits” accumulated during the presidency of George W. Bush because of unfunded tax cuts for the wealthy, unfunded wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and a Medicare Part D program that was a gift to the pharmaceutical industry.
“You know, these things start adding up. A hundred billion here and a hundred billion there and pretty soon you’re talking about real money. This is what they left us,” he said.
Johnson’s plan for creating jobs is to give the wealthy like himself a much bigger tax cut, Feingold said.
“Period. That’s his plan. Not just the Bush tax cuts. More, more, more, more – without any obligation to actually do something to create jobs,” he said.
Feingold was one of 10 Senate Democrats to vote against the $700 billion financial industry bailout adopted in late September 2009.
He also voted against the financial reform bill recently approved by Congress.
“I promised the people of the state of Wisconsin that I would only vote for a bill that did the job,” Feingold said, explaining his opposition to the financial reform bill to a reporter before addressing his supporters.
Right on target, Roger!
Whether you like the man (George W. Bush) or not, most people would agree that raising taxes in a recession is a bad idea. If you’re one of the people who thinks it’s fine because it doesn’t affect you, think again. If you have a job (or even if you don’t) it affects you because it affects people that employ people. One way or the other, everyone pays for a tax hike.
Great Post. Thanks for sahring!!
Both the republicans and the democrats are behaving horribly on the Bush tax cuts. They are playing a high stakes game of poker and no one is going to lose but us. I am so exhausted by leaders not leading.