#NVSen: Berkley Defends Trillion Dollar Stimulus

Nevada’s Children Now Responsible for Paying Off Debt 

(Las Vegas, NV) – Rarely has seven-term Congresswoman Shelley Berkley encountered a government spending proposal she doesn’t like.  Just as Nevada was entering into one of the deepest recessions in history, Shelley Berkley promised the one trillion dollar stimulus would create 34,000 jobs in Nevada, a promise that has long been proven broken.

“After fourteen years in Washington, Shelley Berkley still doesn’t get that a bigger, more powerful government is not the answer to getting our economy back on track. She clearly has no concept of how many taxpayers’ dollars she wasted. Instead, she followed President Obama and Nancy Pelosi’s lead, and spent a trillion in taxpayers’ dollars growing jobs in Washington DC. Meanwhile, Nevada was left hung out to dry,” said Chandler Smith, Heller for Senate spokeswoman.

Berkley doubles, triples down on the stimulus:

• Berkley claimed the trillion dollar stimulus “will create or save 34,000 jobs statewide, with the majority of those in Clark County.”  In fact, Nevada lost 65,000 jobs. (Berkley Press Release, February 12, 2009)

• Berkley: “I’m very grateful for that stimulus and if I had to vote on it again today with all the negative publicity I would vote on it again.” (Hearing on Responding to Long-Term Unemployment, House Committee on Ways and Means, June 10, 2010)

• Berkley said that the stimulus “put $700 billion into our education system. I’m not talking about only paying teachers and keeping them employed, I’m talking about the possibility of having to close schools…”It put $500 billion into Medicaid so that poor children and poor adults aren’t going to be out on the streets dying for lack of medical care.”  (Steve Tetreault, “Stimulus working or not? Heller and Berkley duke it out,” Las Vegas Review Journal, July 17, 2010)

·         But Shelley Berkley had her facts wrong:

o   “Berkley later said she meant to say millions of dollars, not billions.

o   “Her office also said that Nevada education received roughly $550 million and that the state’s Medicaid share was $450 million plus additional money for health insurance for the unemployed. (Steve Tetreault, “Stimulus working or not? Heller and Berkley duke it out,” Las Vegas Review Journal, July 17, 2010)

But in fact the stimulus padded the wallets of Washington DC and left Nevada hung out to dry:

·         The stimulus created 6.8 jobs for every 1,000 Washington DC residents. It created .7 jobs for every 1,000 residents outside of the District of Columbia. (“The Obama Stimulus, Three Years of Failure,” Republican Policy Committee, February 17, 2012)

·         According to study reported by the White House, “the District stands to benefit the most from the stimulus bill as it is home to the majority of Federal agencies in the region…
(The White House, “Real Estate Giant Predicted DC Area Would Benefit The Most From Stimulus Bill,” April 22, 2009)

·         Washington DC received $8,357 in spending per capita. Nevada received $1,671.
(Propublica.org; http://projects.propublica.org/recovery/, Accessed February 28, 2012)

·         Nevada unemployment remains the highest in the nation at 11.6 percent.