Nearly Two-Thirds of Americans Deem Trillion-Dollar Stimulus a Failure, Continue to Ask: 'Where Are the Jobs?'

April 29, 2010

Washington- While the Democrats scramble to divert attention away from the economy by focusing on healthcare and financial regulatory reform, Washington families haven't forgotten about Rick Larsen and his party's trillion-dollar stimulus failure. After a year of spending too much, taxing too much, and borrowing too much, Americans are fed up with the Democrats' economic policies. And in an already turbulent political climate, a new survey verifying that nearly two-thirds of Americans are at odds with the stimulus will not bode well for politically imperiled Democrats like Larsen. Despite countless attempts by Larsen and his party bosses to divert attention from their disastrous economic policies, there is nothing they can do to salvage the irreparable damage that they have done.

"Nearly two-thirds of Americans do not believe the $787 billion stimulus package the president passed last year has helped create jobs, according to a new Pew Research Poll.

"Sixty-two percent of those polled said the stimulus hasn't contributed to job creation...

"Forty-nine percent said TARP did not prevent a more severe crisis compared to 42 percent who said it did." (Andy Barr, "Poll: Stimulus didn't help," Politico, 4/29/2010)

Now, the Democrats are planning on hitting nearly 30 million Americans with new taxes in order to pay for their costly agenda:

"President Barack Obama's Democratic allies in the Senate promise to cut the deficit by almost two-thirds over the next five years, but their budget plan could threaten about 30 million people with tax increases averaging $3,700 because of the alternative minimum tax.

The alternative is tax increases elsewhere in the revenue code averaging up to $100 billion a year after 2011 to continue alternative minimum tax relief and also curb taxes on people inheriting large estates." (Andrew Taylor, "Millions face tax increases under Dems budget plan," Associated Press, 4/21/2010)

The Democrats' out-of-control spending has the head of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office begging for them to stop:

"'The nation's fiscal path is 'unsustainable,' and the problem 'cannot be solved through minor tinkering,' the head of the Congressional Budget Office said Thursday morning."

"Elmendorf noted a recent CBO report that pegged an increase in the public debt from $7.5 trillion at the end of 2009 to $20.3 trillion at the end of 2020 if President Barack Obama's fiscal 2011 budget were to be implemented as written. As a percentage of gross domestic product, the debt would rise from 53 percent to 90 percent, CBO forecasted. The only other time the percentage was that high was right after World War II." (Jonathan Allen, "CBO chief says debt 'unsustainable'," Politico, 4/06/2010)

"Rick Larsen and his party bosses' reckless spending and economic policies have started to catch up with them," said NRCC Communications Director Ken Spain. "Despite countless attempts by Larsen and his Democrat colleagues to divert attention away from their job-killing and reckless spending agenda, Americans know full well what has led to the economic downturn. After repeatedly shutting them out of the debate and pushing policies that spend too much, tax too much, and borrow too much, Americans have had enough of Rick Larsen and his out-of-touch Democrat colleagues."