US Rep. Dave Reichert (R-8, WA) has a long history of claiming Obama’s stimulus package is a waste of money because it doesn’t create new jobs.
For example, in a January 28 statement on his vote against the stimulus, Reichert said, “I could not in good conscience support this nearly $1 trillion measure for which there was little evidence that it would create new jobs.”
In a February 5 op/ed for the P-I, Reichert wrote, “Quite simply, the House ‘stimulus’ bill didn’t do what it was supposed to — to help hurting families and small businesses.”
In a statement eight days later, he said, “Many of the programs in this bill are good programs, but they don’t create jobs now – and that’s what we need in this crisis. I can’t vote for this bill with a clear conscience when it’s not the right thing for hurting Americans.”
On November 6, he called the stimulus package “reckless spending on the backs of our grandchildren.”
And just three weeks ago, on November 16, Reichert had this to say: “With unemployment eclipsing 10 percent, it’s clear that the stimulus package passed by Congress has so far proven ineffective in getting Americans back to work.”
Whoops. This week, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released a report estimating that the stimulus package had created between 600,000 and 1.6 million new jobs, and raised the US gross domestic product by 1.2 to 3.2 percentage points above what would have been without the program.
Moreover, in the New York Times last month, several prominent economists argued that the stimulus had helped the economy, by creating jobs and hastening the end of the recession.
Reichert’s district office hasn’t returned a call for comment, and Reichert’s D.C. office is closed.
