Scott Brown... savior to turdpie in 2 weeks.

Less than a month ago, the wingnuts were ready to run Scott Brown for President. Now that he's sided with the American worker on a jobs bill, he's.... well.... look at his Facebook page.



According to Gawker:

These folks, Scott Brown's "Fans," thought Brown was literally the naked lovechild of Reagan and George Washington, but, in fact, he is a Senator from Massachusetts. And he would like to remain a Senator from Massachuetts, which means sometimes he will have to vote for things that the people in his state (not the people from Facebook) support.

So Brown patiently explained, on the Facebook, that he's voting for the bill because blah blah tax cuts bipartisanship etc. etc. This message has 3,546 comments of pure rage. (And 1,569 likes!)

Here's a good one:

"I wish your truck had broken down and you couldn't make it to Washington in time to vote for this bill! You were OUR "hope and change" and you let US down BIG TIME!!! Beck/Palin 2012!!!"

More GOP hypocrisy on health care and stimulus money

In advance of the health care summit, and flying in face of GOP lies objections, here are over a dozen GOP proposals included in the President's health care bill.

Bloomberg

Alabama Republicans Jo Bonner and Robert Aderholt took to the U.S. House floor in July, denouncing the Obama administration’s stimulus plan for failing to boost employment. “Where are the jobs?” each of them asked.

Over the next three months, Bonner and Aderholt tried at least five times to steer stimulus-funded transportation grants to Alabama on grounds that the projects would help create thousands of jobs.

They joined more than 100 congressional Republicans and several Democrats who, after voting against the stimulus bill, wrote Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood seeking money from $1.5 billion the plan set aside for local road, bridge, rail and transit grants. The $862 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed last year with no Republican votes in the House and three in the Senate.

The problem isn't that they took the money. It's not. I didn't give back my $300 Bush tax rebate that I objected to. The real problem is the hypocrisy of taking the money that you voted against, posing for pictures at ribbon-cuttings for new jobs that comes from the money, and then calling the stimulus a failure that's produced nothing.

Meanwhile, the CBO released a report that says that, conservatively, the stimulus created at least 1 million new jobs (2.1 million is the high number) and added at least 1.5% to the GDP (3.5% is the high number).

Washington Post

The economic stimulus law added between 1 million to 2.1 million workers to employment rolls by the end of last year, a new report released Tuesday by congressional economists said.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office study also said the $862 billion stimulus added between 1.5 to 3.5 percentage points to the growth of the economy in 2009. The controversial stimulus law combined tax breaks for individuals and businesses with lots of government spending.

The report reflects agreement among economists that the measure boosted the economy.

Recovery schmercovery. The stimulus was bad.

Or not.

Cognitive Dissonance Report: Unemployment is near 10% and the GOP is blocking the Jobs Bill

TPM

Democrats still don't have enough votes to overcome a filibuster, and unless they can win over at least one Republican, they may adjourn this coming weekend empty-handed.

What's the hang up? Republicans are working with Democrats on one key aspect of the legislation: tax breaks for employers who hire new employees. But beyond such a measure, Republicans are balking at supporting a full package. And with Democrats now one vote shy of a 60-vote supermajority, they will need one GOPer to break ranks if they want the package to overcome a filibuster.

So far, Democratic rhetoric has been gentle. Last week, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) said "You need two to tango. And you need Republicans for bipartisanship."

"Hope is prospective," he said. "We don't have bipartisanship at this moment. I hope we'll have it in a matter of minutes, hours, days."

Days later, they still don't have it. Which makes you wonder if and when leadership will pivot to directly call out Republicans for unanimously filibustering a jobs relief package when unemployment hovers at near 10 percent.

Jobs growth coming?

(Bob Cesca)

While we aren't quite feeling it yet, it's entirely possible that this month or next month will show jobs growth.



It's no easy feat to go from 700,000 job losses per month to job growth within a year. Adding the balance of the TARP funds to a jobs package might supercharge the process even more.

Recovery Bill #2?

(Bob Cesca)
This chart might be the best pitch for more jobs-oriented spending:


Here's the decision the president will have to make regarding unemployment. Does he continue to let the recovery happen steadily on its present course and risk losing everything because of continued long-term (but slowing) unemployment? Or does he push for a second recovery bill that would surely create more jobs, while also begging a negative reaction from the wingnuts (Tyranny!) and deficit hawks (Generational theft!)?

Reich and Krugman are naturally pushing for number two as well.

Very, very ungood

The economy lost 651,000 jobs in February. 104,000 Construction Jobs… 168,000 Factory Jobs… 40,000 Retail Jobs... 180,000 Professional And Business Service Jobs … 78,000 Temp Agency Jobs... 33,000 Leisure and Hospitality Jobs

That's 3.3 million in the last 6 months.

Unemployment is 8.1%, a 25-year high.

We had ALL best be pulling for the stimulus to work.