Reasserting Our Sovereignty

Today "We the People" will reassert our sovereignty. It's about time too, because we've been ignored for far too long.

Our number one issue has always been jobs. Not so for Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy and the other Democrats in Congress! Their number one issue has always been whatever House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the San Francisco Democrat, told them it was.

Around this time last year we were all crying out "Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!" and because our Congresswoman was under the spell of the San Francisco Democrat the topic being debated was Obamacare not jobs. Namely, if the individual mandate is a tax (by the way, now the Administration admits it is). We were desperate for an economic fix, Washington was enraptured by debating the finer points of legislation we didn't ask for--or want.

Over half a wasted year later in March we all were still crying out "Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!" and the Democrats were still focused on Obamacare. Congresswoman Kilroy refused to hear us. She was too busy listening to Nancy Pelosi.

For his part, Steve Stivers voiced our opposition to the bill. He stated our anger, "It targets taxpayers with new costs in the middle of a terrible recession and it targets the fast-growing Ohio industry of medical-device manufacturing with a new tax that will surely kill jobs."

Speaker Pelosi and Congresswoman Kilroy passed the bill. (They had to so we could find out what was in it, of course.) President Obama signed it into law.

We wanted job creation. We got saddled with new debt.

Obamacare was egregious. What's worse is that it's been just one in a seemingly never-ending series of times we've been ignored:

Cap-and-trade.

The $787 Billion Stimulus.

The Dodd-Frank fiasco.

Raising the national debt limit. Twice.

Congresswoman Kilroy and her ilk haven't listened. Today, we will elect someone who will. 

Steve Stivers for U.S. Congress. Vote TODAY.

Kilroy Denies Stimulus Shanghai (Another Lie)

Congresswoman Kilroy seems to be preparing for her post-electoral defeat transition back to trial lawyering (though as a multi-millionaire she may just retire and enjoy her wealth). The Kilroy for Congress campaign has filed a frivolous complaint against Steve Stivers for producing and disseminating an ad that accurately portrays Congresswoman Kilroy's record of supporting the failed stimulus bill, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which created jobs in China.

This is just one more pathetic gasp for attention by Congresswoman Kilroy's desperate campaign. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has walked away from her because they've lost faith that she can win. The people of the OH-15 have long since lost faith in her (the majority of us never had any faith in her to begin with--she won her seat with a mere plurality of the vote). Congresswoman Kilroy knows without a major game-changer her career will end with this election. This complaint is a meritless and cynical stunt to attempt to conjure that game-changer out of thin air, and Kilroy is hoping we'll all be dumb enough to fall for it.

The reality is that Lt. Colonel Stivers's ad contains only true statements. The entirety of Kilroy's complaint hinges on the falsehood that no jobs were created in China as a result of the stimulus. Unfortunately for Kilroy, the stimulus did create jobs in China. It's been widely reported. See the ABC News coverage below:



As reported in The Washington Times last month:

"The Department of Energy estimated that 82,000 [stimulus] jobs have been created and has acknowledged that as much as 80 percent of some green programs, including $2.3 billion of manufacturing tax credits, went to foreign firms that employed workers primarily in countries including China, South Korea and Spain, rather than in the United States."

Now I may not be a fancy trial lawyer like Ms. Kilroy, but stimulus money going to "foreign firms" that employ workers "primarily in countries including China... rather than the United States" reads a heck of a lot like stimulus money creating jobs in China. Congresswoman Kilroy may like to ignore this inconvenient truth, but as economist Samuel Sherraden of the progressive think tank New America Foundation said, "We have to recognize that we are funding job-creation programs in Germany, Spain, Japan, and China."

While Kilroy turned a blind eye, other Democratic legislators recognized the problem and were outraged. Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Bob Casey (D-PA), Jon Tester (D-MT), and Ohio's own Sherrod Brown sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Geithner asking him to put a moratorium on the section 1603 grant program responsible for using stimulus money to create jobs in China. In their press release the senators highlighted a project anticipated to create 3,000 jobs in Shenyang, China. The same project's estimated impact in the United States was roughly one tenth the Chinese impact with most U.S. jobs created being only temporary positions.

That's like for every dollar spent we get a dime.

The Treasury Department responded to the senators that it did not have authority to halt the program. Subsequently, Schumer introduced legislation to amend the program to include a "Buy American" requirement. The legislation has not been enacted and thus stimulus funds are still free to flow overseas.

What are we to think when rather than fight to correct legislation that is widely known to benefit China Congresswoman Kilroy turns a blind eye and pretends all is well? Mary Jo Kilroy has been a militant socialist, defended an IRA terrorist on domestic abuse charges, and has received campaign funding from a known front group for HAMAS. Now, she's been exposed as voting in favor of legislation with giveaways for China and is trying to squash the truth about her record by filing a frivolous OEC complaint. Stivers's ad is right to ask, "Whose side is Kilroy on?"

About That Economic Recovery...

In March 2009, Congresswoman Kilroy stated in a Columbus Dispatch survey that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the so-called stimulus bill) would "create more than 16,000 jobs in central Ohio". In addition, her press release on the occasion of the Act's passage stated 133,000 jobs would be created in the State of Ohio. A question for the Congresswoman: where are the jobs?

According to recovery.gov, a mere 17,095 jobs have been created in the State of Ohio. That's pretty weak. Assuming none of these jobs were created in the phantom 43233 zip code where the State of Ohio's Office of Budget and Management sent $220 million to improve non-existent infrastructure, the 17,095 jobs created represent not even 13% of the jobs promised. What would happen to you at work if you delivered only 13% of the results you promised? (Assuming you're lucky enough to have work right now, of course. 15.3 million Americans don't.) I'd bet you'd lose your job for delivering barely over a tenth of what you promised--and rightfully so. Should we not then fire our Congresswoman who authorized tossing hundreds of billions of dollars of our money to the wind and failed to deliver the recovery she promised? You bet we should!

Nationally, unemployment remains at 10%. That's 1 in 10 people without jobs. According to the latest from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 4 in 10 unemployed Americans (or 6.1 million people) have been unable to find jobs for a period of roughly seven months (27 weeks to be precise). Seven months is a long time to be in professional and financial freefall. Can you imagine the toll that would take on a family?

As you can read in the Columbus Dispatch, the most disturbing finding in the new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics is the erosion of 1.9 million Americans from the labor force since May 2009. That's 1.9 million Americans who have given up. These are people who want to be working, but they're so beaten down from scrounging for work in the dead economy that they've given up the search. If not for their despair, unemployment would have actually risen 0.4 percent in December.

Now that we've taken a quick look at the dismal national scene let's bring it back to Ohio: Ohio's citizens are among the hardest hit by the massive economic downturn the Democrats have brought us since gaining control of Congress in 2006. According to the latest data from the Ohio Bureau of Labor Market Information, Ohio, at 10.6%, has the 11th highest unemployment rate among the states. 623,000 Ohioans are without work. To add some perspective, the number of unemployed Ohioans is greater than the total population of Vermont. That's a lot of people.

We're in a particularly bad way in Ohio, wouldn't you agree? Last year, Democratic lawmakers promised us recovery, and yet we're still sorely in need. On her official House website, Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy states that the "effective and efficient action" of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act has "already addressed the immediate needs of the crisis". Effective? Efficient? Apparently, Ms. Kilroy needs to invest in a dictionary because the so-called stimulus plan has been anthing but effective and efficient. Far more troubling than her lack of comprehension of the English language is her dispassionate attitude that the immediate needs of her constituency have been addressed. 623,000 Ohioans without work. 10.6% unemployment. I'd say those are some pretty big concerns that need to be addressed. Wouldn't you?