10/26/10 - The Cap Times, Madison WI: Stimulus bill benefited most everybody by Niel Ritchie
Stimulus bill benefited most everybody
By Niel Ritchie
Republican lawmakers spent the last year attacking Democrats over the $814 billion economic stimulus package signed into law back in February 2009. Hoping to turn pro votes into an election-year liability, critics took to the airwaves in unison claiming the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was a boondoggle that didn’t boost the economy or create a single job.
We now know they knew better.
According to an investigative report published Oct. 17 by the nonprofit Center for Public Integrity, even the loudest critics quietly requested millions in federal stimulus funds based on local jobs they would create.
Shoring up the nation’s transportation infrastructure was a primary focus, creating 1.3 million construction jobs nationwide while rebuilding 35,400 lane miles of highways and 12,065 bridges.
In Wisconsin it provided $3.7 billion for such things as health care, education and transportation infrastructure, but nearly everyone got a piece of the stimulus bill’s action, a fact lost on most Americans.
Included in the bill were $116 billion in tax cuts for 95 percent of workers that resulted in lower withholdings from their paychecks. A recent New York Times/CBS News poll found that fewer than one in 10 remembered this, if they knew it at all.
That’s, ultimately, the trouble when scripted political theater takes the place of reasoned debate: It makes bad actors of elected officials who put politics first -- and leaves voters confused between what is fact and fiction, an especially terrifying thought this election year.
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