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Home > Blogs > Butler County News and Issues > Archives > 2010 > August > 11 > Entry
Boehner, White House blog face off over local impact of stimulus
U.S. House Minority Leader John Boehner and a top White House staffer faced off in a war of words today, Aug. 11, over the potential impact of the West Chester Twp. Republican’s call to stop stimulus spending on local projects.
The squabble started when Boehner made the Sunday talk show circuit Aug. 8.
“Whey don’t we stop the stimulus spending?” Boehner said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “There’s still about $400 billion or $500 billion of the stimulus plan that has not been spent. Why don’t we stop it. It’s not working.”
Jared Bernstein, chief economic advisor to the vice president, shot back today on the official White House blog.
“Though we’re sure he didn’t know it, the Congressman is advocating to kill the expansion of the Butler County Community Health Center and bring some of the twenty-five highway projects across the district to a grinding halt,” Bernstein wrote.
Bernstein went on to list other things stopping the stimulus would do, including ending a tax credit for 4 million Ohioans, halting unemployment checks and unfunding more than 100 clean energy projects across the state.
Finally, Bernstein took issue with Boehner’s numbers, pointing to a Politifact report that only $292 billion of the $787 billion stimulus plan has not been spent, and much of the it has already been obligated.
Less than two hours later, Boehner issued his own statement.
“The people of my district are looking at President Obama’s ‘stimulus’ policies and asking a simple question: where are the jobs?,” Boehner said in the release. “The fact is, the president’s ‘stimulus’ spending spree is not delivering the results he promised it would, whether you’re looking in Ohio or anywhere else in America.”
“A nation in our fiscal condition should be spending less, not more,” he said, decrying Democrats’ call to end tax cuts enacted under President George Bush that Boehner said would amount to a tax hike on 50 percent of small businesses in America.
“I hope Vice President Biden’s economist today will provide the people of the Eighth Congressional District with an explanation of how raising taxes on small businesses will do anything but further hinder job creation in Ohio and across the country,” he said.
Permalink | Comments (19) | Post your comment | Categories: National issues
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By jane
August 11, 2010 4:42 PM | Link to this
I love that they are expanding the route 4 bypass, I don’t care where the money comes for it.
By Dee
August 11, 2010 5:49 PM | Link to this
I knew Boehner would sound off in this manner. He only continues to repeat the same old misrepresentations, getting his constituents to rise up angry, not listening to the facts. I am so sick of this man. He does NOT care about anyone but the rich. Yet, he somehow drags the “NO” crowd along with him. I wish he’d get voted out. I am ashamed to be from SW Ohio.
By unemployed voter
August 11, 2010 6:16 PM | Link to this
There are no decent paying jobs open in Butler County to cover all the job losses we have suffered. Kill the stimulus, then kill unemployment compensation. I can always sign up for welfare, then get free medical. Then we’re back to square one, Mr. Boehner. Then what? What’s YOUR plan??? And what have you accomplished in your years in Washington? Who is better off now (besides yourself)?
By Jess Allene
August 12, 2010 7:09 AM | Link to this
John Boehner is not the bad guy here. He is against the Dems consistently passing legislation that is putting our govt. deeper into debt. I personally believe they passed that bill to buy the teachers union and cop unions with elections coming up. Obama owns the unions with General Motors, which should be operated free from govt. Boehner knows how his majority feel out here and we support him firmly for this election!
By Gerald Huntsbeinder
August 12, 2010 7:37 AM | Link to this
You can say all of your garb about Boehner. Do you really have a decent knowledge of govt. and what Obama is doing with our money. Bailing out the teachers and cops is a fleeting thing. After that money is gone, where will they get more? The economy has to recover without the govt. going deeper into debt. Obama is buying the unions with this bill. Boehner is a good man and has a majority supporting him!
By Jayne
August 12, 2010 9:04 AM | Link to this
I support Boehner all the way.. In the 19 years he has been a representative he has not asked for ONE pork project to waste more of our hard earned tax dollars.
By Peacemaker
August 12, 2010 10:06 AM | Link to this
Jayne…and our cities are struggling and jobs are being killed, and Boehner is lunching with the elite, dining with corporate moguls, and running for speaker of the house by golfing across the nation and world while fund raising for his PAC. See any Boehner help locally? No one seems to bs able to name anything. BTW not all earmarks are bad and evil expenditures.
By Mr Bungle
August 12, 2010 11:26 AM | Link to this
Peacemaker- so I guess Michelle Obamas extravagant vacation to Spain isn’t frivolous? You don’t know about Obama playing golf all summer or flying to Chicago for dinner? ALL politicians do this- to blame Boehner and not Obama, you’re just not seeing the whole picture. Let’s just keep spending, raise taxes and do absolutely nothing about it- you think the Depression was bad? You ain’t seen nothing yet!
By Hamoldone
August 12, 2010 11:59 AM | Link to this
@Peacemaker, does your union boss know you do nothing but post on newspaper websites all day, everyday? I can’t wait to see more of your whining when Nancy Pelosi hands Boehner the gavel. The point is the federal government continues to spend money we DO NOT have! That simple, we borrow 43 cents to every dollar spent. This was and is nothing but a kick back to unions, no one else. So who’s getting rich? Not the rich…THE UNIONS!!!! Someone remind them it’s not 1930.
By Peacemaker
August 12, 2010 10:10 PM | Link to this
@Homoldone. No boss, no union, retired and will post as much asI like. You react without knowing me. Not whining. Stating my opinion as I have a right to do. Who is getting rich? The rich are getting richer. Look at the reports about the shrinking middle class and the wealth being concentrated in the top one to three percent of the population. And so..the Feds spend money we don’t have? I guess you would support ending the tax cuts for the wealthy since they are not paid for. Boehner considers teachers, police, and firefighters special interest but wants to extend tax cuts for the wealthy.
By Wake Up
August 12, 2010 11:45 PM | Link to this
Peacemaker - Boehner’s not the only one who considers teachers, police and fireman unions special interest groups as that’s exactly what they are. And they’re the most dangerous kind as few politicians want to push back on them. Thankfully, Boehner does. If you read USA Today earlier this week you would have learned of yet another story citing how much more money govt employees make over their private sector peers. Why? Again, union influence. That’s a big piece of this country’s problems today and you need only to look at debtclock.org to see how much they’re “owed”. It’s time to blow up their power. And try as you might Peacemaker, the real question you need to be asking isn’t how much more the wealthy should be taxed (they more than pay for themselves and others) but why do we continue to waste trillions on those less fortunate. The answer: govt has been rewarding the poor personal choices of most for decades (ex: have a kid as kid, no problem govt will pay for it, have two, we’ll give you even more….) to buy their votes, Obama’s rush for illegals is further proof. That’s were the real money is and it’s time govt stopped supporting those who really don’t deserve it so we have more money to pay off our debts and to help those who do.
By Boehnerisms
August 13, 2010 5:36 AM | Link to this
Those of you that think Boehner has not approved earmarks are extremely naive. Boehner has approved BILLIONS of earmark spending, only not to his District. Google: Republican Earmark Spending. Mitch McConnell over $450 Million. Shelby over $1 Billion. Cochran $470 Million. Wicker $390 Million. The list goes on. Wake up SW Ohio. Boehner is a joke and an embarrassment. And just for fun, Google: Boehner Foley Cover Up (just in case you want to see Boehner’s true ethics and morality.
By Chuck Merle
August 13, 2010 7:03 AM | Link to this
These libs can yap on all they want. We have to make some sense out of the mess Obama/Pelosi is causing. I think this bill to send for teachers and cops is to get union support during vote time. Also, from the auto maker unions. This man is planning this slippery, slithering process. I think he wants to get these illegals to get their fake documentation out of Chicago so they can vote. All corrupt, maybe theory, or NOT!
By Eli Jones
August 13, 2010 8:18 AM | Link to this
Barack Obama gave 900 Million to the Hamas Muslims of Gaza……Obama spent 23 Million of your money illegally to buy Kenya’s election…… Obama gave Brazil 2 Billion to fund their offshore oil drilling with the oil slated to go to China. How’s that for using your stimulus money?
By Peacemaker
August 13, 2010 9:41 AM | Link to this
@ wake up…waste trillions on those less fortunate. what would you do? Deny them food, maybe water…school…health care….shelter? Please consider the third world nations and what happens to their poor. Then please consider the industrialized nations and what they do to help the poor. I am reminded of an old movie in which our society has devolved into a two class system where the “haves” live on Earth’s surface in comfort and style while the” less fortunate” live underground in tunnels and caves with the accompanying vermin. This middle class disappearance is real. It is happening. So.. Who do we want to be? What kind of nation do we want to be? This is a real concern for me…please respond with thought rather than attack.
By Dee
August 13, 2010 11:51 AM | Link to this
The middle class has been disappearing gradually since the early 1980s. To blame any of this on Obama is simply wrong. To trust Boehner is to trust a charlatan. Let’s see what would happen if all government jobs were stopped. THEN you’d be whining because you didn’t get the services you’ve come to expect. The solution to all of this might be to stop Wall Street from trading or not trading based on unfounded rumors. But, that will never happen. People who serve you don’t deserve to be called nasty names by nasty people.
By Wake Up
August 15, 2010 4:25 PM | Link to this
Peacemaker - While direct, there was nothing attackful in my post. Like you, I’m concerned but in a far more macro view as the direction we’re being led (against the majority’s will) only exacerbates our problems. This nation once encouraged individual success - attracting the world’s best. It now seeks to punish it while increasingly rewarding unions (especially govt’s), illegals and those more than capable of taking care of themselves (Social Service employees know who they are, their abuses and how that money could be used to better help others is wasted) at everyone else’s expense — all for increased political gain. And contrary to what a minority believes, Obama owns most of where we are now as the uncertainty his agenda still creates, his expanded spending and taxation, seating the least business experienced Cabinet of any administration and his failure to listen to business leaders (U.S. Chamber virtually ignored) made it worse. Which also greatly explains his stimulus failures including the shovel-ready projects he touted - most are still delayed, which typifies most of what he was shoveling during his campaign and now - he’s still not ready to lead.
By simpleman
August 16, 2010 1:30 PM | Link to this
wake up-i agree lets let our teachers go to another state where they can make more money.we should punish our kids for the because you don’t like unions.
By jimmy
August 16, 2010 2:13 PM | Link to this
It’s so funny to what Washington argue about the economy, Ground Zero, immigration, and the wars in Asia, while the country is falling apart!