Is This What Reid Calls “Stimulus?”

Wednesday, 27 May 2009 19:00

Little Progress In NV 100 Days After Reid Championed Massive Spending Bill

WASHINGTON - After throwing a "glitzy" Vegas fundraiser in the wake of dismal reelection poll numbers, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) woke up this week to a number of discouraging news reports 100 days after the Democrat Leader rammed a trillion dollar ?stimulus? bill through Congress.

Not only have Nevada?s unemployment numbers continued to increase from 10 percent to 10.6 percent in just two months, but Reid?s home state will not receive any of the projects that President Barack Obama rolled out this week with his "100 Days, 100 Projects" report.

"While Harry Reid was busy throwing a blowout Hollywood party for himself at Caesar's Palace, Nevadans are still struggling to get a piece of the massive stimulus bill that Senator Reid rammed through Congress," said National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) spokesman Brian Walsh. "The Democrats' plan will add trillions of dollars to our already $11 trillion in government debt, and unemployment rates are still on the rise in Nevada and nationwide - is this what Harry Reid defines as 'stimulus?'"

Some notable stories marking the first 100-days of the Democrats' stimulus bill:

USA TODAY: States hit hardest by the recession received only a few of the government's first stimulus contracts, even though the glut of new federal spending was meant to target places where the economic pain has been particularly severe? [W]ith few exceptions, that money has not reached states where the unemployment rate is highest, according to a USA TODAY review of contracts disclosed through the Federal Procurement Data System.

POLITICO: President Barack Obama came to Nevada to tout the release of a new report on the $787 billion economic stimulus bill, "100 Days, 100 Projects." But none of them are in Nevada?[T]he overall sense in the state is that stimulus money is just beginning to trickle in and so its benefits so far aren?t all that tangible, according to news reports in the Las Vegas Sun.

REUTERS: Obama's top economic adviser, Cristina Romer, told MSNBC she was optimistic about some improving economic indicators, that it appeared ?we are nearing the bottom? of the economic trough and that growth may well resume by year's end. ?The gold standard is going to be jobs numbers. And realistically, we're not going to see us adding jobs for a while,? she said.

AP: The White House job claims are difficult to verify because they are based on estimates of how bad the economy might have been without the stimulus rather than actual employment data. The country has lost 1.3 million jobs since February...

MCCLATCHY: "Only a small part" of the nation's $787 billion economic stimulus had been spent through the end of last month, according to congressional analysts, despite the Obama administration's boasts Wednesday that the plan is a big success.

ABC: The booklet also mentions the "police academy graduates in Ohio" whose graduation ceremony President Obama attended in March, heralding how the stimulus enabled the city of Columbus to hire 25 cadets. But this week Police Chief Walter Distelzweig told the Columbus Dispatch that unless residents approve a tax increase, those 25 cadets face the real possibility of layoffs.

Watch the NRSC's new web ad on Harry Reid: