Boehner: AS AMERICANS ASK “WHERE ARE THE JOBS?” CNN HIGHLIGHTS DEM DIVISIONS ON TRILLION-DOLLAR “STIMULUS” THAT’S NOT WORKING

This just in from the Minority Leader in the House, Ohio's own John Boehner:

July 8, 2009 | House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) | Permalink
CNN’s American Morning today aired a report on the Democrats’ trillion-dollar “stimulus” spending bill that isn’t creating jobs and the escalating feud it has sparked among Washington Democrats in the wake of ongoing American job losses. The CNN piece highlighted a web video recently released by House Republicans that asked “Where Are the Jobs?” The web video shines a spotlight on several wasteful projects bankrolled by the taxpayer-funded trillion-dollar “stimulus” and underscores the lack of jobs created by the massive spending binge. As the CNN report notes, Democrats in control of Washington are “all over the map” on the “stimulus,” the lack of jobs that it has created, and what to do next.

Earlier today, House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) recommended one course of action for creating more jobs: abandoning the Democrats’ plans for a new job-killing national energy tax on every American, and stopping their planned government takeover of health care, which includes costly mandates on American employers and tax hikes on small businesses, the engine of job creation in America’s economy. Video and a full transcript of the CNN report follows:


Click HERE for Full Video

CNN’S KIRAN CHETRY: Back here at home with unemployment at its highest level in more than a quarter century, Republicans pouncing. CNN’s Jim Acosta is live in Washington this morning. The Republicans releasing a new ad and saying that the stimulus isn’t working.

CNN’S JIM ACOSTA: Yes, that’s right, Kiran. A whole lot of barking here in Washington as we are about to show you. With the President overseas, Republicans here in Washington believe they have found Mr. Obama’s Achilles heel, the economy. Top GOP leaders are pointing to recent conflicting statements coming out of the White House on the stimulus, asking once again whether it was the right approach to ending the recession.

(Begin “Where Are the Jobs?” Web Video)

VOICE OF REP. LYNN WESTMORELAND (R-GA): Where are the jobs? We put the dogs on the money trail to find out.

ACOSTA: In the latest sign the economy is in the doghouse, Republicans are sicking their bloodhounds on the stimulus with this video that asks, where are the jobs?

HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH): I’m John Boehner. This is Ellie Mae. She hasn’t found any stimulus jobs yet, and neither have the American people.

(End “Where Are the Jobs?” Web Video)

ACOSTA: It’s an issue that dogged the President all the way to Russia where Mr. Obama clarified statements made by his own Vice President on the recession.

VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: There was a misreading of just how bad an economy we inherited.

ACOSTA: Not exactly, according to the President.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I would actually, rather than say “misread,” we had incomplete information.

ACOSTA: Who still believes the stimulus was the right call.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: There’s nothing that we would have done differently.

ACOSTA: But Republicans point to President Obama’s dire warnings back in February when he urged the Congress to pass the stimulus.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: We’re moving quickly because we’re told that if we don’t move quickly, that the economy is going to keep on getting worse. We’ll have another two or three or four million jobs lost this year.

ACOSTA: Turns out even with the stimulus, the economy has shed 3.4 million jobs in just six months. While the President says he’s now open to a second stimulus, one of his top economic advisors is already calling for one. Laura D’Andrea Tyson told an economic seminar in Singapore “we should be planning on a contingency basis for a second round of stimulus.” Republicans say the White House can’t get its story straight.

SENATE REPUBLICAN LEADER MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): They said the stimulus was necessary to jumpstart the economy, yet now with about a half of a million jobs lost every single month they’ve started to admit they simply misread the economy. These were costly mistakes and we can’t take them back.

ACOSTA: Despite a rough couple of weeks for Republicans, GOP strategists see their own political green shoots of recovery on the economy.

REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST DOUG HEYE: Nothing has really galvanized the Republican Party more than the stimulus vote. One thing that we’ve seen is that the President’s popularity, while he is still popular throughout the nation, really is taking hits in key states.

ACOSTA: Which state is he talking about? For one, he is talking about the key battleground of Ohio. There is a new poll out there showing the President’s numbers slipping when it comes to the economy, and that may explain why the White House is not alone in considering a second round of stimulus spending. Democrats in Congress are also kicking around the idea of a sequel, including the House Majority Leader, even though some in the Congress, in the Democratic Party, are clearly disappointed with the original. The Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, said yesterday he’s not convinced a second stimulus is needed. So, despite a lot of discipline on the Democratic side over these last several months, when it comes to the stimulus, when it comes to the economy, they are all over the map on that one. Kiran?

CHETRY: Alright, we’ll have to wait and see. Jim Acosta for us this morning, thanks.