Despite Job Losses, Shea-Porter Claims Stimulus is Creating Jobs
July 22, 2009 by Patrick
Filed under News & Politics
The stimulus package is working and has already “improve[d] the number of jobs” in New Hampshire, according to Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (NH-01) in a recent radio interview with WGIR radio personality Charlie Sherman.
“New Hampshire certainly has seen some jobs come and, actually, we grew jobs. We’ve actually had improvement in the number of jobs,” said Shea-Porter.
Shea-Porter’s comments notwithstanding, New Hampshire has lost roughly 16,000 since the beginning of the year and the New Hampshire Union Leader reported recently that the stimulus plan has thus far created only thirty-four fulltime jobs despite the $400 million plus dollars that have come into the Granite State from the federal government.
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) struck back against Rep. Shea-Porter’s claim.
“Judging by her claim that the stimulus is working, one has to wonder whether Carol Shea-Porter is living in the state of New Hampshire or the state of denial,” said NRCC spokesman Paul Lindsey. “After voting for a trillion-dollar stimulus package that has failed to create jobs or spur the economy, Shea-Porter’s obliviousness adds further insult to the middle-class families who are left footing the bill for her party’s reckless spending.”
A new Granite Survey shows that only forty-six percent of voters in the first congressional district approve of the job Shea-Porter is doing in Washington. She finds herself locked in a close race against Republican Manchester Mayor Frank Guinta.
Shea-Porter’s office was not immediately available for comment.
My best possible analogy for this is here:
http://www.nhinsider.com/steve-mac-donald/2009/6/27/saved-by-zero.html
But I’ll paraphrase it here.
The economy is like a sinking ship. The employed are the ones bailing it out. So you can claim to have saved or created whatever you want. If, at the end of the day, there are more people standing around looking for something to bail with, (or perhaps they have given up looking altogther) then regardless of the reasoning, the rhetoric, or the byzantine calculations needed to assume the proper positive political posturing, fewer people are bailing, and the economic ship is still sinking.
So, wait a minute. If unemployment goes up, we’re now calling that “improving the number of jobs”? What planet is this woman from, and how soon can we send her back?