All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

President Obama today traveled to Elkhart, Ind., a town suffering from crushing unemployment rates, to announce new grants for the city to manufacture electric vehicles.

"I'm here because I believe our ability to recover and to prosper as a nation depends on what happens in communities just like this one," Mr. Obama said. "The battle for America's future will be fought and won in places like Elkhart."

The town's unemployment rate soared 10 points over the past year and now stands at 16.8 percent, a fact the president called "astonishing." He said the area has been "hit with a perfect storm of economic troubles."

Mr. Obama said the city will revive, in part because of the grant announced today for the Elkhart-based company Navistar. The company will receive $39 million to manufacture electric trucks, which should create or save hundreds of jobs once full scale manufacturing at the site begins. Overall, seven projects in Indiana will receive grants totaling more than $400 million.

Read full post…

The U.S. Department of Agriculture today called out the Drudge Report for its misleading criticism of federal stimulus spending -- clarifying that the government did not spend $1,191,200 for one two-pound ham.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack released a statement in response to postings on Drudge. Several government contracts funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act were linked to on the site with headlines such as, "Awarded: $1,191,200 for '2 pound frozen ham sliced.'"

"Press reports suggesting that the Recovery Act spent $1.191 million to buy '2 pounds of ham' are wrong," Vilsack said in the statement. He explained the description of "2 pound frozen ham sliced" referred to the packaging size and that the USDA in fact purchased 760,000 pounds of ham for $1.191 million, at a cost of approximately $1.50 per pound. The food is being distributed to food banks, soup kitchens and other local organizations that assist the needy, via the state-run Emergency Food Assistance Program.

"This program will help reduce hunger of those hardest hit by the current economic recession," Vilsack said.

Read full post…

Earlier this year, Texas Governor Rick Perry was one of a handful of Republican governors who refused some federal stimulus funds from President Obama's economic recovery package on the grounds that there were too many strings attached to the money.

Now that the state is dire straits, however, Perry is asking the federal government for a loan to cover the very expenses the rejected stimulus money would have paid for.

While Perry accepted most of the roughly $17 billion in stimulus funds allocated for Texas, the governor in March rejected $555 million that would have covered state unemployment benefits. Perry said he was not accepting the money because the state would have been obligated to expand its unemployment coverage, creating too much of a long term tax burden.

At the time, Texas Workforce Commission Chairman Tom Pauken reportedly said the state's unemployment compensation trust fund could be operating at a deficit by October. Now that the state's unemployment funds are depleting faster than expected, the governor is asking for a $170 million loan from the federal government, News 8 Austin reports.

Read full post…

President Obama announced Monday that his administration is ramping up the pace at which funds from the $787 billion economic stimulus package are spent and predicted that the legislation will save or create 600,000 jobs in the next 100 days.

The bill will mean "keeping teachers in the classroom, cops on the streets, providing summer jobs for youth that are particularly hard-hit in this job market, breaking ground on hundreds of new projects, all across the country, in clean energy and transportation and so on," he said.

The president said last month that the bill had saved or created 150,000 jobs in its first 100 days, a claim met with criticism from Republicans. Citing a May New York Times report that less than 6 percent of the money had been paid out – most of it in the form of social service payments to states – the Republican National Committee argued that the Recovery Act had thus far "produced waste and fraud, but no jobs."

The president insisted Monday, however, that the administration has "done more than ever, faster than ever, more responsibility than ever, to get the gears of the economy moving again."

Read full post…

Like a handful of other Republican governors, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford defiantly protested the stimulus funds President Obama has been doling out to the states. He is, however, the only governor to take his opposition to the federal bailout money to court.

On Monday, the governor saw a major setback in his fight to refuse $700 million in federal funds, the New York Times reported.

A federal judge on Monday said two lawsuits seeking to compel Sanford to accept the money should be heard in state court. The state Supreme Court will hear the arguments in the cases, filed by two students and the South Carolina Association of School Administrators, on Wednesday.

South Carolina is eligible to receive up to $2.8 billion in stimulus funds, and the state has already accepted some of the money, according to the Wall Street Journal. Sanford has said he would only accept the $700 million in question if it could be used to offset the state's debt; the money, though, is slated to mostly pay for education.

Read full post…

One hundred days after he signed the $787 billion economic stimulus package, President Obama lauded the impact of the bill during a speech Wednesday afternoon at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, Nevada. The president argued that the bill "has helped to fuel demand that is helping businesses put more Americans back to work" and said it has already saved or created nearly 150,000 jobs.

The speech was the latest volley in Mr. Obama's public relations battle with Republicans over the bill, known formally as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The GOP has painted the package as a waste of taxpayer money that has done little to help the economy.

Earlier today, Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele released a statement arguing that a report put out by the Obama administration celebrating the stimulus package amounted to PR from the president designed "to convince voters his reckless spending plan is working."

In his remarks today, the president said the stimulus package was "designed not only to revive the economy in the short term, but to rebuild the economy over the long term." He announced funding for two new stimulus programs, one for solar energy technologies and another for developing the use of geothermal energy.

He also detailed the jobs that he suggested would not exist without the stimulus package, including "jobs building solar panels and wind turbines." He said the package was responsible for keeping teachers, police officers, young people and nurses employed and for creating jobs fixing the nation's infrastructure and working at small businesses.

Republicans dispute the president's claims; the RNC released a "research briefing" earlier today arguing that "after 100 days, the stimulus has produced waste and fraud, but no jobs."

As Factcheck.org notes, the 150,000 jobs figure, which dates from last month, comes from an estimate on the part of the president's Council of Economic Advisers. It does not reflect a claim that 150,000 jobs have been gained, but rather that 150,000 fewer jobs have been lost than would otherwise have been. The estimate is based on established models, though Factcheck argues that "there’s very little hard data…[on] how many jobs may have resulted from the legislation."

Read full post…

The economic stimulus package – also known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – turns 100 days old today, and the Obama administration is marking the occasion in two ways.

The first is a speech by the president at 2:40 ET in Nevada "on the important early investments included in the Recovery Act." And the second is a just-released report on the results of the $787 billion piece of legislation, from Vice President Joe Biden.

In the report, the administration argues that the stimulus package has already created or saved 150,000 jobs – though it should be noted that jobs "created or saved" is a notoriously difficult figure to measure. It also says that $112 billion in money from the package has been "obligated" to programs and projects so far.

The Republican National Committee, unsurprisingly, is not impressed by these figures: It sent a "research briefing" to reporters arguing that "after 100 days, the stimulus has produced waste and fraud, but no jobs."

Read full post…

It was a day of outrage on Capitol Hill. Outrage that AIG, recipient of almost $180 billion in federal bailout money, is paying out $165 million in "retention awards" to hundreds of employees, including 73 bonuses of $1 million or more and 11 payments to people who no longer work for AIG.

As CBS News and others have documented that outrage is disingenuous coming from lawmakers who have known about the pending bonuses for months.

In particular, it's disingenuous coming from anyone who voted for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (a.k.a. the Obama stimulus package). The stimulus bill included provisions to limit executive compensation at companies receiving federal bailout money. But it also stated explicitly that the limits would not apply to bonuses agreed to prior to Feb. 11, 2009.

Read full post…

Looking to strike fear and compliance in the hearts of local officials, Vice President Joe Biden warns that if they use money from the economic stimulus fund to build what he regards as the wrong kind of projects, “I’ll show up in your city and say this was a stupid idea.”

“No swimming pools!” he implored. “No tennis courts!” he begged. “No golf courses!” he pleaded. “No Frisbee parks!” he exhorted.

“This can’t be government as usual,” he told an assemblage of local officials invited to the White House from around the country.

Even if they can promise him that building their projects will create jobs and generate revenue, Biden wants none of it.

“The answer is no, no, no!” He said “it’s got to pass the smell test.”

He urged the officials to think about how their constituents would react if the projects they launched were plastered on the front page of their biggest local newspaper.

“If it doesn’t automatically make sense, don’t do it!”

Read full post…

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, seen as a potential Republican presidential contender for 2012, is being accused of “playing politics” for declaring that he may turn down a quarter of the stimulus money designated for his state.

Starting Monday, the Democratic National Committee will begin running an ad in South Carolina in which an announcer says “South Carolina is facing tough times – but Governor Sanford is playing politics instead of doing what’s right.”

Sanford, the announcer says, is “turning down millions in recovery act funds. Putting politics ahead of health care, jobs and schools…Tell Mark Sanford to stop playing politics with South Carolina’s future.”



Sanford has been a vocal opponent of the stimulus package, which he alleges is filled with wasteful projects. But with his state’s unemployment rate at 10.4 percent – the second highest in the country – he has become a tempting target for Democrats who are casting him as putting his constituents second.

Read full post…