Wallace let Boehner falsely claim no stimulus contracts awarded in Ohio
SUMMARY: Chris Wallace did not challenge John Boehner's false claim that stimulus contracts have not yet been awarded in Ohio. In fact, the Ohio Department of Transportation has awarded more than $83.9 million in contracts under the recovery act.
During the July 5 edition of Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace let stand House Minority Leader John Boehner's false claim that "[i]n Ohio, the infrastructure dollars that were sent there months ago," as part of the economic recovery package, "there hasn't been a contract let, to my knowledge. And the fact is is that I don't believe it will create jobs." In fact, in a June 15 update on the state's stimulus spending, the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) stated, "Combined with the contracts awarded so far using funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, ODOT has awarded more than $83.9 million in contracts for work on 52 projects -- a combination of interstate, local roadway and bridge modernization projects." The department's statement continued:
As contracts are awarded, construction companies begin to mobilize workers for these jobs. Jobs are also being created and retained by firms that provide materials and equipment used in highway construction, and those jobs supported by consumer expenditures resulting from wages to 'construction oriented' and 'supporting industries' employment.
A June 8 Associated Press article reported: "President Barack Obama's $787 billion economic spending package reached Ohio's roads Monday when construction crews began work on a highway project in Cleveland. The $1.8 million project will widen a ramp from Interstate 490 to Interstate 77, and other stimulus projects are scheduled to begin in weeks."
During the Fox News Sunday discussion of the economic recovery act and the current unemployment rate, Wallace stated, "Democrats say that unemployment would be a lot higher without the stimulus package." Boehner responded:
BOEHNER: Listen, we argued early in the year when this bill was being debated that the way to help the economy grow is to help small businesses and American families keep more of what they earn, because at the end of the day, they're the ones who can get the economy going again.
This was supposed to be about jobs, jobs, and jobs. And the fact is it turned into nothing more than spending, spending, and more spending on a lot of big government bureaucracy. In Ohio, the infrastructure dollars that were sent there months ago -- there hasn't been a contract let, to my knowledge. And the fact is is that I don't believe it will create jobs. The president said earlier this year we're not going to see unemployment above 8 percent if we pass this bill. And the fact is, we have. And, Steny, the real question is, where are the jobs?
At no point during the discussion did Wallace point out that, as of June 15, Ohio had awarded $83.9 million in contracts under the recovery package.
From the July 5 edition of Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace:
WALLACE: Back when the Obama team was pushing its stimulus plan, it said that it would keep unemployment below 8 percent. This week we all learned it's now 9.5 percent, and the Republicans have put out a video about a bloodhound searching for stimulus jobs. Let's watch.
NARRATOR [video clip]: Finally, the dogs track down something in North Carolina. They used stimulus money to hire one new state worker. His job? Apply for more stimulus funds from the taxpayers by the way of the federal government.
WALLACE: Congressman Hoyer, can you honestly say you're satisfied with the stimulus?
REP. STENY HOYER (House majority leader): I don't think anybody can honestly say that we're satisfied with the results so far of the stimulus, but we believe the stimulus was absolutely essential. Mark Zandi, as you know, who was one of McCain's economic advisers, says it's going to create 2 million jobs by the end of next year. And --
WALLACE: But why hasn't it done more faster?
HOYER: Well, we're disappointed that it hasn't done more faster. John and I were talking earlier about getting money out more quickly. We need to do that. We're disappointed, but after all, the ad is being run by a crowd that created about 4,000 jobs per month -- the worst job creation performance in 75 years -- and lost 2 million jobs the three months before the Obama administration came in.
So, they haven't had such a hot track record. We're disappointed that we inherited such a tanking economy, but we're trying to do everything we can to get it moving again.
WALLACE: I think, Congressman Boehner, he's talking about you as he says that. President Obama defended the stimulus this week. Let's take a look.
OBAMA [video clip]: The recovery act was designed to make sure that local school districts didn't lay off teachers and firefighters and police officers, and it's done its job.
WALLACE: Congressman Boehner, Democrats say that unemployment would be a lot higher without the stimulus package.
BOEHNER: Listen, we argued early in the year when this bill was being debated that the way to help the economy grow is to help small businesses and American families keep more of what they earn, because at the end of the day, they're the ones who can get the economy going again.
This was supposed to be about jobs, jobs, and jobs. And the fact is it turned into nothing more than spending, spending, and more spending on a lot of big government bureaucracy. In Ohio, the infrastructure dollars that were sent there months ago -- there hasn't been a contract let, to my knowledge. And the fact is is that I don't believe it will create jobs. The president said earlier this year we're not going to see unemployment above 8 percent if we pass this bill. And the fact is, we have. And, Steny, the real question is, where are the jobs?
You can't spend $800 billion of taxpayer money and not create jobs when you say that's what the goal was. We haven't seen the jobs yet.
HOYER: We have obviously invested in health care. We have invested in education. I think the president is absolutely right. We would have lost more jobs but for this investment, and economists agree with us. As a matter of fact, a lot of economists on John's side of the aisle agreed with the stimulus package.
BOEHNER: No, no, no. They agreed --
HOYER: John -- John, let me just finish --
BOEHNER: They agreed that we needed a stimulus bill.
HOYER: Let me just finish. John's message is the same message we heard in 2001 -- the same message that supported an economic policy that led us to the worst economic times that we've had.
WALLACE: Gentlemen, let's look forward, not backward.
Wallace is providing cover for Boehner, as usual. Hoyer knows his stuff, had Boehner in retreat and Wallace trying to save Boehner from looking bad. IMO, Boehner doesn't know, or seem to want to know, what is going on with the stimulus $ in Ohio. If Boehner doesn't know that $83.9 million dollars in contracts have already been awarded in his state, he needs to leave the House and devote himself to what he seems most interested in: playing golf.
I would assume he is lying through his teeth because he knows he can there. Surely wouldn't be the first time.
Six months ago, Boehner et al were all complaining about how long the stimulus money was going to take to get into our communities. Now they are acting surprised that it's taking a while to get into the communities?
How did they forget their favorit talking points so quickly? They didn't. It doesn't do them any good to help our nation out by saying "be patient, it took us a while to get ourselves so deeply into this financial morass, and it will take many months before we are able to see the light at the end of the tunnel." So they won't. THey are all about their short-term gain, and not concerned at all with the long term health of our nation's economy. Shortsighted traitors.
"How'd ya do today, John?"
"I shot an 89! It was my best game yet!"
"what were all those divits in the sand trap on 17, then?"
"Oh, I was uh, hunting for sandworms and the spice they create. Yeah, that's it..."
Wallace wouldn't know either, his job is not to know, just to provide the questions so his Republican guests can hit it out of the ball park.
Another highlight here is Wallace's "Why hasn't it done more, faster?" question. Still amazing to me that the guys who've worked so hard for decades to try to destroy our government and economy can act so baffled as to why the results of their ideology haven't been corrected quickly enough, even as they continue to fight against the solutions to the problems they caused.
Like little children who deliberately crashed their bike into a tree asking daddy why he doesn't have it fixed yet.
1. Byrd was a member of the KKK.
2. Ted Kennedy killed someone.
I mean, even just last week we had someone in here talking about how all democrats were racists because Byrd had been a member of the KKK.
Looking forward eh? Not so much those guys.
Grand Dragon Byrd renounced and repudiated? Getting a book published about his Klan days is hardly repudiating, but hey, bad publicity is just as good as good pub, right?
Grand Dragon Robert C. Byrd (DEMOCRAT) West Virginia
But I guess you've been hypnotized to think that Byrd's comments like the following about events from 60 or 70 years ago are practically KKK recruitment talk.
From your link (which tried pretty hard to continue pinning Byrd's past to him, and which I don't get the feeling you read);
Last week, Byrd said: "I know now I was wrong. Intolerance had no place in America. I apologized a thousand times . . . and I don't mind apologizing over and over again. I can't erase what happened."
This is actually a carry over from a thread a few weeks ago where one of the head cheerleader tried to say there were MANY Republicans were part of the Klan. When challenged on this assertion, he quickly moved the goal posts to David Duke, whom the left likes to trot out even though he was never elected to a national office.
My trotting out of the Grand Dragon Byrd is mainly serving a little crow, but by all means feel free to defend the indefensible.
i mean frompretty much from lincoln's time to say nixon, a good number of democrats were kkk members.
one example comes to mind (and this is because i finished Theodore Rex rcently)
Benjamin Tillman. he was a democratic party senator who was notoriously racist.
The problem with the GOP is they are an elephant with selective memory. They can remember at one time that dixicrats were racists, but can't recall a single one who defected and became republicans.
Back in winter, they were well aware, and tried to make everyone else aware, of how long it would take to get most of the money into the economy.
Now, suddenly, they're arguing that the effects of those funds aren't solving the problem yet?
This is assumming Wallace or any of the producers actually researched the monies allocated to ohio. Something that the Fox boys fail to do pathologically.
Media Matters highlights media misinformation. So this isn't about Boehner's lie. It's about Chris Wallace not calling Boehner on his lie.
That's why it's a back-door way to hold Boehner accountable.
Did you read the comment I was replying to?
"...and the fact is is that I do not believe it will create jobs".
Okay, Bronze Boy you not believing is not a fact. You not believing is a lie or a distortion of the truth.
They don't.
http://www.upi.com/Emerging_Threats/2008/10/29/Walkers-World-Obamas-stimulus-plan/UPI-32201225288990/
For example, the calculation suggested that a direct lump-sum tax rebate has an almost neutral effect. One percent of GDP given away leads to a 1.02 percent increase in next year's GDP. Cuts in the corporate tax rate or in capital gains taxes, or making the Bush tax cuts permanent, have a negative effect. They cost more than twice as much as they get back. A payroll tax holiday, by contrast, gets back $1.29 for every dollar spent, since it makes it cheaper to hire labor.
Even greater returns come from other planned measures. Food stamps return $1.79 for every dollar spent, because of the knock-on effect through the food industry. Unemployment benefits return $1.64 for each dollar spent, because the money is directly and immediately spent on food and goods and services, and has a multiplier effect on farmers, retailers, wholesalers and so on.
Infrastructure investment returns $1.59 for each dollar spent, as the money circulates through architects and engineering companies and construction workers who buy steel and cement, and their paychecks buy groceries and go into bank accounts and help keep the overall economy moving.
Direct aid to the states gets $1.36 in returns for each dollar spent, which may not be much but is a whole lot more productive than tax cuts. Moreover, many states have deferred building and maintenance programs planned, designed and ready to start almost as soon as the money is available.
When Wallace tells his guests to look forward, not backward, he is acting as a commentator, not a journalist. A poor commentator. Looking backward is the best way to tell if you are going around in circles. It's the only way to keep people honest.
John Boehner was wrong about Ohio stimulus spending
by Joan Mazzolini/Plain Dealer Reporter Monday July 06, 2009, 5:43 PM
WASHINGTON — When U.S. House Minority Leader John Boehner told a newscaster Sunday that not a single stimulus-funded road contract in his home state of Ohio had been let, he was wrong.
The Ohio Department of Transportation has OK'd 52 stimulus-funded road and bridge projects at a cost of nearly $84 million.
Boehner told Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace that in Ohio, "the infrastructure dollars that were sent there months ago," as part of the economic recovery package, "there hasn't been a contract let, to my knowledge."
Karl Frisch, senior fellow for Media Matters, a media watchdog group that monitors news reports, said it seemed that Boehner, a Republician from West Chester in southwestern Ohio, might want to be more aware of what's going on in his home state.
Frisch said he also wanted Wallace to have some basic facts on the stimulus spending in Ohio if he's going to interview Boehner on the topic.
"This is something pretty basic," said Karl Frisch, senior fellow at Media Matters. "If you're going to interview someone on stimulus funding, you should know something about it." Media Matters, a nonprofit "progressive research and information center," monitors daily newspapers, Sunday news talk shows, and other media outlets looking for and correcting conservative misinformation.
The aim is to put the spotlight on the media to smarten up to stop politicians from "twisting the facts to serve their own talking points," Frisch said.
Boehner spokeswoman Jessica Towhey did not return phone calls. Wallace did not respond to an email.
An ODOT spokesman called Boehner's statement "disappointing."
And Scott Varner noted that ODOT had just OK'd six more stimulus road projects which will cost about $43 million.