Press

CONTACT: JAMES SLEPIAN
James@Renacciforcongress.com

THE STIMULUS, ONE YEAR LATER: FEWER JOBS AND MORE DEBT
Boccieri’s Failed Economic Plan Leaves Ohioans Asking: Where are the Jobs?

            
Canton— Exactly one year ago today, the disastrous economic “stimulus” plan, which Democrats pushed through Congress with the full support of John Boccieri, was signed into law.  In an effort to justify the plan’s hefty $862 billion price tag, Boccieri and his Democratic allies assured the American public that the legislation was necessary to boost the economy and vowed that it would keep unemployment below 8%.  However, one year later, as Americans find themselves suffering through double-digit unemployment and buried under a mountain of new debt, the failures of the Democrats’ incompetent handling of the economy could not be more staggering.
 
While the trail of economic destruction has swept the entire country, Ohio has been hit particularly hard.  Since last February, 107,800 Ohioans have lost their jobs and the State’s growing unemployment rate now stands at 10.9%.  In the 16th district’s most populous county, unemployment has doubled in the past year, and is now approaching 13%.  Despite the unmitigated failures of the Democrats’ economic agenda, John Boccieri continues to whistle past the graveyard and demonstrates unconscionable indifference to the struggles faced by his own constituents.  Seemingly blind to the mounting job losses, John Boccieri has labeled the stimulus plan as an “investment in our people” and a “critical step towards restoring economic hope.”
 
“John Boccieri is living in a sad state of denial.  He has made it clear that his loyalties lie with the failed policies of the Obama-Pelosi agenda and is putting his own political ambitions over the well being of his constituents.  Doubling the national debt while doubling the unemployment rate does not constitute an economic plan for America, and John Boccieri’s refusal to recognize that embodies the failed brand of leadership that he has brought to Washington,” Boccieri’s Republican opponent, Jim Renacci said.  
 
“When we have a Congressman representing this district who considers this type of fiscal incompetence as an ‘investment’ in our future, that Congressman should not have a future in the U.S. House of Representatives.  I am running for Congress because I not only promise to serve as a voice for fiscal responsibility, but I actually have a record which proves that I know what it means,” Renacci added.    
 

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For more information visit RenacciForCongress.com

February 4, 2010
 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: JAMES SLEPIAN
James@Renacciforcongress.com

BOCCIERI CONTINUES SUPPORT FOR FAILED ECONOMIC PLAN
Despite rising debt and unemployment, Pelosi loyalist calls for more of the same

Wadsworth— Earlier today, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that new unemployment claims rose unexpectedly last week to 480,000, with the total number of jobless Americans now standing at 15.3 million.  Among the unemployed, 40% have been jobless for more than six months, the highest rate of long-term unemployment since 1948.  The troubling jobs numbers come two weeks after Ohio reported its statewide unemployment rate had grown to 10.9%, and just one day after John Boccieri labeled his 2009 vote for Barack Obama’s $787 billion stimulus plan as “helpful work for families” and the “largest investment in our country’s history.”  
 
“John Boccieri may believe that doubling the unemployment rate while doubling the national debt has been ‘helpful’ to American families, but I think the 40,000 unemployed Ohioans in the 16th district would likely disagree.  Burying our country in trillions of dollars in new debt while watching millions of jobs disappear does not constitute an ‘investment’ in anything other than widespread poverty—and the fact that John Boccieri still fails to understand that is shameful,” Renacci spokesman James Slepian said.  
 
Boccieri’s record-breaking deficit spending in support of the Obama-Pelosi economic agenda was promised to keep unemployment below 8%, but in the past year, unemployment across the 16th district has doubled, now exceeding 13% in some areas.  Despite the clear inability of massive deficit spending to stimulate the economy, John Boccieri continues to engage in rampant and reckless spending in Washington.  In addition to his support for a $3.5 trillion budget that will double the national debt in five years, last week Boccieri continued the D.C. shopping spree, voting to spend $50 million in taxpayer money to build a park on a plot of beachfront property in the Caribbean.
 
“After 27 years of creating jobs, balancing budgets and helping grow the local economy, Jim Renacci understands that we cannot spend our way to prosperity and that we must restore fiscal order to Washington.  John Boccieri on the other hand seems to believe that despite the growing job losses and dismantling of our economy, the spendthrift policies of the past year are working out just fine for his constituents here in the 16th district.  As he continues to sell out to Nancy Pelosi and D.C. special interests, struggling Ohioans will only continue to suffer under his brand of failed leadership,” Slepian added.