Pat Dollard | Young Americans

The Washington Post:

Vice President Biden plans a political broadside this afternoon in the home district of Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), accusing the senior Republican lawmaker of joining in his party’s smear of the $787 billion Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

“To those who say that our economic decisions ‘have not produced jobs, have not produced prosperity, and simply have not worked’ I say, take a look around,” Biden will say, according to prepared remarks obtained by The Washington Post.

“I say, ‘Don’t let your opposition to the Recovery Act blind you to its results,’” Biden plans to say in the Richmond speech. “‘Come see what I see everywhere I go: workers rehired, factories reopened, cops on the street, teachers in the classroom, progress toward getting our economy back on the move.’”

Without naming Cantor directly, the rhetorical assault is aimed directly at the Richmond lawmaker, who has helped lead the Republican Party to its most effective message since Obama became president: that Obama’s stimulus bill has not produced jobs.

In the weekly Republican radio address he delivered for his party last week, Cantor called the Recovery Act a “bill full of pork barrel spending, government waste and massive borrowing cleverly called ’stimulus.’ Obama’s economic decisions have not produced jobs, have not produced prosperity and simply have not worked.”

Biden will take direct aim at that contention, citing tens of millions of dollars in stimulus money that have saved teacher jobs in Chesterfield County and police officers in Richmond.

“I ask those critics…. Would they not help the states prevent lay off thousands of teachers, firefighters, cops?” Biden will say in the remarks. “Would they not give a tax cut to 95 percent of the American people? Would they sit back and do nothing as our economy collapsed?”

Cantor has scheduled a news conference for this afternoon to push back against Biden in advance of the vice president’s speech.

Biden’s speech is part of a newly aggressive White House posture toward Republican criticism of the stimulus, which has mounted as unemployment has continued to rise.

White House officials concede that Republicans have effectively stoked questions about why the vaunted stimulus spending has not created or saved more jobs. In Michigan this week, newspapers and local officials greeted President Obama with tough words about the stimulus as he arrived for an education speech.

But the White House argues that the Republican opposition has been misleading, and they have decided to be more aggressive in pointing out what they claim are hyperbolic accusations from the GOP.

When Republican Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) last week claimed that “there hasn’t been a contract let, to my knowledge” because of the stimulus package, the White House quickly pounced.

Biden traveled to Ohio to urge patience and attack Republicans for seeking to “do nothing” to improve the economy. He also pointed out that millions of dollars from the stimulus bill had in fact already been spent in the state.

By taking aim at Cantor, the White House hopes to make an example of Republicans who they say are trying to take both sides of the stimulus issue.

Although Cantor has been outspoken in his criticism of the stimulus bill as wasteful and not effective, he recently joined his congressional colleagues in urging Virginia’s transportation
department to apply for stimulus money for high-speed rail, a pet project of his.

“Many of us got together a month ago to demonstrate our commitment to shed partisan politics, shed regional differences and focus on one thing and this is economic development and job growth in our area,” Cantor said, according to a report in a local Virginia newspaper.