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| Got $200K in stimulus. Supports anti-stimulus candidate. Go figure. |
A. Screen Machine Industries, in Pataskala, OhioThe photo probably gave it away. All four received money from President Obama's stimulus. All four hosted Republican presidential candidates who campaigned against the stimulus.
B. Citronics, in Milford, N.H.
C.Vermeer, in Pella, Iowa
D. Trident Technical College, in North Charleston, S.C.
It just makes the head spin.
Thanks to a terrific Associated Press story by Steve Peoples, we now know of the difficulty Republican candidates are having in their quest to destroy the middle class. As they travel the country calling for less government and more jobs, the incoherence of their position becomes clear. They keep campaigning in places that were able to hire workers because of stimulus money.
Writes Peoples,
...with an awkward frequency, these same candidates are campaigning at businesses that benefited from the president’s landmark stimulus package.
With the cameras rolling, the Republicans celebrate the hard work of local entrepreneurs in places like Pella, Iowa, and Milford, N.H., while later condemning the federal resources that helped those entrepreneurs navigate the economic downturn...
"There was a tremendous amount of money that went to all sectors. It would be very hard for a Mitt Romney, or a presidential candidate from any party, to go to any manufacturer and find someone who was not directly, or indirectly, affected somehow," said Steven Cohen, president of Ohio-based Screen Machine Industries, which hosted a Romney event in July and received stimulus contracts worth nearly $220,000.A photo on Screen Machine Industries' website actually shows Romney speaking to the employees under a sign that says, "More Jobs, Better Jobs."
The stimulus created or saved as many as 3.3 million jobs and lowered the unemployment rate by 1.8 percentage points, according to the most recent estimates by the Congressional Budget Office.
What's not to like about that?
