8 Months After Stimulus: Where are the Jobs?

HIXSON, OCTOBER 21 – Third District Congressional Candidate Robin Smith today noted the difference between the Obama Administration’s February 2009 estimation of jobs in Tennessee that would be created by the Stimulus bill passed earlier this year and the actual result of the Stimulus on job creation.

The number of jobs lost in Tennessee since the president signed the Stimulus bill through September of 2009 stands at 48,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In February, the White House projected that Tennessee would gain 70,000 jobs as a result of their unprecedented increase in government spending, a miscalculation of 118,000 jobs. Tennessee joins 49 of 50 states in reporting a loss of jobs since the bill was enacted into law with 2.7 million jobs gone nationally.

“The legacy of Barack Obama’s spending spree will be broken promises and failed policy,” Smith said. “In the eight months since Congress passed this pork package, unemployment has continued to rise and the jobs promised have not been created.  Tennesseans are looking at the money flowing to the pet projects of out of touch politicians and wondering what happened to the jobs? The president and the Congress have endangered our children’s economic future to pay for liberal programs, turtle tunnels and to save mice in Nancy Pelosi’s congressional district. But there are still no new jobs for Tennesseans who value hard work and want to rely on themselves instead of the government.”