SUBMITTED RELEASE FROM NEVADA STATE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
By Phoebe Sweet
LAS VEGAS–This week marks the one-year anniversary of passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, legislation that has created and saved tens of thousands of jobs in Nevada and many more around the country.
Already Republicans are lining up to attack the legislation, saying it hasn’t done its job. Nationally, Republicans are touting ARRA-funded projects in their districts–projects that never would have come to be without Sen. Harry Reid’s leadership–despite having used their obstructionist tactics to oppose the legislation.
As Republicans, including Danny Tarkanian and Sue Lowden, make these attacks, it’s important that we ask them this question: Which of these tens of thousands of hard-working Nevadans whose jobs were saved and created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment act should be laid off today?
· How many Nevada teachers and police whose jobs were saved do Republicans think should lose their jobs?
· How many Harrah’s employees who benefited from the debt cancellation provision in the recovery act do Republicans think don’t can go without a paycheck?
· How many Nevadans at work on installing solar panels do Republicans think deserve to worry how they’ll feed their families?
· How many of the construction workers building roads and infrastructure in Southern Nevada do Republicans think should start looking for other work today?
· And which of the 1,300 jobs on geothermal projects, 200 jobs installing Smart Grid technology and 400 jobs constructing a transmission line across Nevada would Republicans eliminate to score political points?
“If Republicans think the recovery act was such a bad idea, they should tell that to the tens of thousands of Nevada workers who still have jobs in these hard times thanks to this crucial legislation,” said Phoebe Sweet, communications director for the Nevada State Democratic Party. “The same people who got us into this mess with 8 years of disastrous economic policies have offered no solutions to help turn our economy around. Meanwhile, they have opposed every effort by Sen. Reid and Congresswomen Dina Titus and Shelley Berkley to create jobs.
“This just goes to show how out of touch Republicans are with ordinary Nevadans, who believe, as Democrats do, that creating and saving jobs is more important than playing partisan politics.”
