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In election year, jobless rating is political football
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"We are one of the leading states in the union with unemployment but think how much worse it would be if we had not been able to create these jobs in Nevada with the recovery bill."
Harry Reid
U.S. Senate majority leader, Democrat seeking re-election
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"Nevada now leads the nation in unemployment. Is there any doubt we're heading in the wrong direction with Harry Reid?"
Sharron Angle
GOP U.S. Senate nominee opposing Reid
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Updated: Jun. 19, 2010 | 8:27 a.m.
WASHINGTON — On a day that Nevada’s unemployment rate topped the nation, Sen. Harry Reid said things would be even worse if Democrats had not acted to create and save jobs through economic stimulus.
Reid, D-Nev., defended Democrats in a Senate speech Friday, saying 3 million Americans who went to work in the morning have Democrats to thank for pushing through the economic recovery bill last year.
“The economy in Nevada is not in good shape. It is getting better but not good,” he said. “We are one of the leading states in the union with unemployment but think how much worse it would be if we had not been able to create these jobs in Nevada with the recovery bill.”
Reid said the stimulus act “has created or saved more than 4,000 jobs in just the past four months alone,” in Nevada. The highway bill that Congress extended earlier this year saved “hundreds and hundreds of jobs” in the state, he said.
“We worked hard to create jobs,” he said, noting the Obama administration was about to recognize the 10,000th road project funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
News that Nevada’s 14 percent unemployment for May had bumped Michigan for the dubious distinction of being the state in the deepest job hole prompted a fresh round of hand-wringing and partisan finger-pointing among state leaders, politicos and leader wannabes.
Republicans pounced on Reid in an ongoing bid to tag him the poster boy for the Nevada recession.
Republican National Committee spokesman Jahan Wilcox claimed by the jobs measure the stimulus has failed and “nobody has done more to ensure that Nevada leads the country in unemployment than Harry Reid.”
While Sharron Angle, Reid’s Republican opponent in the fall race, was preparing reaction through her campaign, she remarked on her Twitter account: “Nevada now leads the nation in unemployment. Is there any doubt we’re heading in the wrong direction with Harry Reid?”
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that was enacted in February 2009 authorized $787 billion for a variety of programs intended to create jobs and promote investment in response to the recession.
According to recovery.gov, the Obama administration’s site for tracking the stimulus, 4,774 jobs were funded by the recovery bill from January through the end of March. In February, Nevada Department of Transportation director Susan Martinovich said the stimulus would “create or sustain” 1,600 jobs on more than 70 road and transit projects.
Despite that the pain continues.
Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., said the state’s new jobless figures indicates the recovery is not working.
“Since the passage of the stimulus, Nevada’s economy has continued to decline,” Heller said in a statement. “Despite assertions to the contrary, it does not appear that jobs are being saved or created under the current economic plan.”
Heller said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, R-Calif., needs “a wake up call.”
“While our economy continues to struggle and Nevadans seek work, the U.S. House of Representatives just this week voted on measures to recognize that milk and bald eagles are good and to honor the Hollywood Walk of Fame,” he said.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate and Clark County Commissioner Rory Reid said a partisan debate about the already passed stimulus package was a “waste of time.”
“The bill passed,” the younger Reid said. “We ought to claw and scratch our way, do what we can to get that money.
“It’s impossible to have a quality of life if you don’t have a job, that’s why I’m talking as much as I am about education. We’ll never solve this problem if we don’t make our schools better. No companies will come to Nevada if we can’t graduate half our kids from our schools.”
His Republican counterpart, former federal judge Brian Sandoval, said he was worried.
“These numbers are beyond concerning,” Sandoval wrote in a statement. “Losing a job is devastating to a family. Nothing is more important to me than getting Nevada working again.”
Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., blamed the Bush administration, out of office for close to two years, for leaving behind “an economic crisis that was deeper than anyone anticipated.”
“Pulling Nevada out of the deepest recession in a generation will not be easy,” said Titus, who faces a challenge this year from Republican Joe Heck. She added that solving the problem “will take time,” and the goal should be to diversify the state economy through renewable energy ventures.
But Republicans focused some of their blame on the freshman congresswoman, saying she has supported a Democratic “job-killing agenda.”
“The longer Titus allows this jobless recovery to drag on, the more difficult it will be to restore the kind of fiscal discipline essential to job creation,” said Ken Spain, communications director of the National Republican Campaign Committee.
Titus and Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said Nevada’s record unemployment underscored the need for Congress to extend payments for the long-term unemployed, a matter that has been clogged in the Senate in a dispute over further government spending.
“We desperately need an extension of unemployment benefits for our neighbors who remain without work and who count on these checks for food and rent,” Berkley said. “The economic challenges we face in Nevada are great, and when mom or dad is unemployed, families have a hard time just making ends meet.
Review Journal writer Kristi Jourdan contributed to this report. Contact Stephens Washington bureau chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760.
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Caught on tape: Angle says Nevadans forced onto unemployment are “spoiled” http://bit.ly/bpX4nx
If Harry was anywhere CLOSE to being hohorable, he would step aside and give someone else a shot. Why should you give him another 6 years. He has had 24 years and are you beeter off than you were 24 years ago? That would be about 1986 timeframe. No one should be allowed to serve that long and do nothing. Sheeple vote and the ones voting for him are looking for something out of YOUR pocket. Harry will give it to them and stab you in the back. Don't fall for it, time to go. Vote ANYBODY BUT REID.
CLOWARD-PIVEN STRATEGY RESEARCH IT ON OBAMA'S PLAN AND THE DEMOCRATS STRATEGY! THIS IS HAPPENING YESTERDAY, TODAY, TOMORROW AND THE FUTURE UNLESS WE RID THE REIDS AND THE DEMOCRATS ALL OF THEM!
You people just don't get it. If we can't stop illegals then Harry wins and Obama becomes the socialist/marxist regime of the Americas. This is no joke but fact. Harry has to be stopped.. But illegals have to be stopped first long before November. If the admiminstration can divide this country in the next six months. Harry wins either way and the Democrats have all the power unless citizens physically overthrow the government. RIEDS HAVE TO BE STOPPED AND DEMOCRATS HAVE TO BE OVERTHROWN THEY ARE NOT LEAVING WITHOUT A PHYSICAL FIGHT AND ILLEGALS AND THE TERRORIST AFGHANS AND OTHERS OR ALREADY ARMING. THIS IS THE BIGGEST DISASTER IN AMERICAN HISTORY TRUST ME. YOU WERE WARNED!
There's a catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf, but the real spill is here: http://www.investors.com/image/toon050510_FULL.jpg.cms
Adios, Harry!!!
Harry,
He claims to have created jobs, what he really means is jobs in Russia, where his administration is buying Russian Helicopters with our taxes for the Afghan Army, does Harry think we dont have helicopter factories in the US. Than he talks about Green jobs, except the money his administration spent is on Chinese Solar panels, Chinese Steel and Chinese Wind Mills. harry needs to go home and get a real job and find out why we really have no jobs.
VOTE HARRY REID OUT - The "So Called" Economic Stimulus Package, we were told - would keep the unemployment rate below 8%. Just another Lie - we are now almost double that and lead the nation in unemployment.
Harry Reid is now trying to Ram thru the Cap & Tax bill BEFORE JULY 4th. You talk about destroying the economy and jobs... the Cap & tax Bill will do it.
Nevada has only gone down under Reid - and this OBAMA, REID, PELOSI axis of evil has to be broken.
VOTE OUT HARRY & RoRY
VOTE HARRY REID OUT
Harry Reid is now trying to Ram thru the Cap & Tax bill BEFORE JULY 4th. You talk about destroying the economy and jobs... the Cap & tax Bill will do it.
Nevada has only gone down under Reid - and this OBAMA, REID, PELOSI axis of evil has to be broken.
VOTE OUT HARRY & RoRY
Harry, do everyone a favor and RESIGN. Let a Capitalist take over and create jobs. Its the only way. Your not a Capitalist. Your a Socialist and socialism does not work.
Saying things could be much worse, IF, is like trying to smooth the effect of losing one leg after an accident and stating your lucky you could of lost both IF you were unluckier.
The, if, part is a completely disingenuous statement since there really is no way to prove, IF, concerning this economy; what if Bush didn’t act giving money to the banks, really we truly can only theorize and since all the spending we really don’t know, IF, we will be paying for this ten times more later. OH wait yes we do and there is no IF.
And the massive recession was created by those like Reid; no if’s about that either.
No REID’s no way, no more, not ever again, and no if’s, about it.