Stimulus

The non-partisan Congressional Research Office says last year's stimulus package is responsible for up to 2.1 million jobs in the 4th quarter of last year. From the CBO Director's blog:

Looking at recorded spending to date as well as estimates of the other effects of ARRA on spending and revenues, CBO has estimated the law’s impact on employment and economic output using evidence about how previous similar policies have affected the economy and various mathematical models that represent the workings of the economy. On that basis, CBO estimates that in the fourth quarter of calendar year 2009, ARRA added between 1.0 million and 2.1 million to the number of workers employed in the United States, and it increased the number of full-time-equivalent (FTE) jobs by between 1.4 million and 3.0 million.

Saturday:

Republicans — including Missouri’s Sen. Christopher “Kit” Bond and Reps. Roy Blunt of Springfield and Blaine Luetkemeyer of St. Elizabeth — are trying to have it both ways. They voted against the stimulus bill and continue to denounce it as they try to take credit for projects that it funded.

Jim Lee has a really interesting story on his Busplunge blog about his trip to the groundbreaking ceremony for Springfield's new Ozone Disinfection System earlier today.  Rep. Roy Blunt was in attendance to get his picture taken on a tour of the city's Brownfields program after the groundbreaking. 

Lee had a simple question for Blunt: What did he think about how the stimulus package was helping Springfield?

"No comment," said Representative Blunt.

The Democratic National Committee has a new web video calling out Sen. Kit Bond and Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer for promoting the benefits of last year's stimulus bill bill in their districts while

New York Times reporter David Leonhardt has a really interesting story that looks at independent analyses of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act one year after passage. 

Leonhardt doesn't dismiss all of the criticisms of the legislation or its implementation, but says Republicans' attention to flaws has been "wildly disproportionate to their importance." 

Just look at the outside evaluations of the stimulus. Perhaps the best-known economic research firms are IHS Global Insight, Macroeconomic Advisers and Moody’s Economy.com. They all estimate that the bill has added 1.6 million to 1.8 million jobs so far and that its ultimate impact will be roughly 2.5 million jobs. The Congressional Budget Office, an independent agency, considers these estimates to be conservative...

[T]he introduction of the most visible parts of the program — spending on roads, buildings and the like — has been a bit sluggish. Aid to states, unemployment benefits and some tax provisions have been more successful and account for far more of the bill. But their successes are not obvious...

A few weeks ago, Rep. Marilyn Ruestman (R-Joplin) complained to her constituents about how Gov. Jay Nixon "irresponsibly used one-time stimulus funds to balance our budget despite our warnings." 

Confronted with the hypocrisy and inaccuracy of this argument, Ruestman has changed her tune. She is now telling her constituents that using the Recovery Act money in the state budget was the only responsible course of action.

Birther Rep. Tim Jones (R-Eureka) says he can't be held responsible his vote to use federal Recovery Act money in last year's budget because Sen. Claire McCaskill "forced" the legislature to accept $1.3 billion for education and health care expenses. In Jones' latest  newsletter:

This week, Senator McCaskill criticized Missouri's General Assembly and Governor for utilizing the federal stimulus funds to plug major budget gaps that she forced on Missouri over a year ago.

Emphasis in the original. You know the federal government is really getting too powerful when it forces state legislators to draft and pass budgets against their will.

Kit Bond is currently in the running for Countdown's "Hypocrisy Hall of Shame" for trying to have it all ways on Recovery Act spending.  The MSNBC website links to this Kansas City Star Editorial for Bond's "rap sheet." 

Vote early, vote often.

Kit Bond gets a shout out around the 4:35 mark

  In the right-wing Washington Times:

Sen. Christopher S. Bond regularly railed against President Obama's economic stimulus plan as irresponsible spending that would drive up the national debt. But behind the scenes, the Missouri Republican quietly sought more than $50 million from a federal agency for two projects in his state....

"It's not illegal to talk out of both sides of your mouth, but it does seem to be a level of dishonesty troubling to the American public," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

Earlier today, President Obama accused Republicans of "putting party before principle and voting against his 2009 stimulus plan but then attending 'ribbon cuttings' for stimulus projects in their own districts." Watch it:

Yesterday, Roy Blunt's official office announced $942,000 for homeless assistance programs in Springfield & Joplin.  As outlined in the News-Leader, the grants will be used to help with programs for unhoused residents in Greene, Christian and Webster counties, and money will be distributed to five programs -- The Kitchen Inc., Salvation Army, The Housing Authority of Springfield and the local office of the Missouri Department of Mental Health.

There's just one small problem with Blunt's celebration of the grants and the News-Leader's decision to put a picture of Blunt's happy face in their story about the money:  Roy Blunt voted against the stimulus funds used to fund the program, voted against the overall HUD budget in December, and voted against the Homeland Security appropriations bill in June that also covered some of the funding.

ThinkProgress:

Earlier this month, Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO) called the stimulus a "large-scale failure," but last week hailed a stimulus program in Frankford, Missouri as "critical." Referring to a $330,000 loan and $313,900 grant authorized by the stimulus, Luetkemeyer said, "Clearly, the 328 residents of Frankford will benefit from this grant and I appreciate the USDA’s willingness to help this community." In September, Luetkemeyer requested $100 million from the stimulus for a road project in Missouri...