After a day of attacks from the Left after his retirement annoucement, Evan Bayh slams the Democratic Congress's handling of job creation
Freed up from concerns about the wrath of the Obama Administration or the Democratic Party after his shock retirement yesterday, and perhaps troubled by the harsh personal attacks from the left in the wake of his announcement, Evan Bayh today slammed the Democratic-controlled Congress as creating no jobs to help the economy and workers through the ongoing economic slowdown in America. Bayh was responding to a question about his position, as enunciated at his retirement press conference yesterday, that he could help his constituents more outside of Congress than in. Politico reports on Bayh’s CBS “Early Show” appearance this morning:
Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) is retiring, but he’s not the retiring type, ridiculing congressional job creation efforts — i.e., the stimulus — on “The Early Show.”
“If I could create one job in the private sector by helping to grow a business, that would be one more than Congress has created in the last six months,” Bayh said.
The White House is no doubt smarting this very moment over the cutting nature of Bayh’s attack, as such sentiments have been pouring forth from GOP politicians ever since the January/February 2009 Stimulus debate. When Scott Brown made a similar comment just two weeks ago, the White House went into full spin mode, attacking Brown harshly, as reported by ABC:
Minutes after he was sworn in by Vice President Biden, newly minted Senator Scott Brown (R-MA) says the stimulus “hasn’t created one new job.”
The comments came at Brown’s first press conference as a U.S. Senator when I asked him if he is willing to work with Democrats on a jobs bill. Based on his response, that seems unlikely.
“The last stimulus bill didn’t create one new job and in some states the money that was actually released hasn’t even been used yet,” Brown said.
“It didn’t create one new job?” I asked.
“That’s correct. We lost another 85,000 jobs again, give or take last month,” he responded. “And in Massachusetts, it hasn’t created one new job and throughout the country as well. It may have retained some but it hasn’t created any new jobs. I need to see the bill.”
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The Obama Administration says Brown’s got his facts wrong.
“Economists of all political points of view, including those from the non-partisan CBO, estimate that the Recovery Act has created or saved between 1.5 – 2.4 million jobs across America,” said Jay Carney, spokesman for Vice President Joe Biden, the administration’s top Recovery Act booster and watchdog.
“Unemployment is far too high, which is why the President is so focused on jobs. But it is beyond dispute that if it were not for the Recovery Act, as many as 2.4 million more Americans would be unemployed today.”
More Carney: “Anyone can go to Recovery.gov and see that MA state and local government, businesses and community organizations have already reported directly funding over 9,000 jobs in the state last year – and that’s based on a only a portion of the total $8.4 billion in Recovery funds that have already gone to MA.”
So far, the White House has had no response to Bayh’s comments whatsoever, showing what a difference the source of a similar comment can make to the White House’s response. The perception of Bayh as now being free to speak his mind, and newly frank views being quite similar to prior GOP attacks on the Democratic-controlled 111th Congress, will surely rile the establishment media and political blogosphere and ensure the Bayh shock retirement story continues to occupy a substantial portion of the overall news cycle for days to come.
Tags: Blogosphere, Cbs Early Show, Constituents, Creation Efforts, Democratic Congress, democratic party, Economic Slowdown, Establishment Media, Evan Bayh, GOP, Gop Politicians, Job Creation, Joe Biden, New Job, No Doubt, Personal Attacks, Private Sector, Senator Scott, Sentiments, Slams, Stimulus, Stimulus Bill, Substantial Portion, Wrath