Where Are Arizona’s Jobs?
Where Are Arizona’s Jobs?
Ann Kirkpatrick Has No Answers After Failed Stimulus, Arizona Unemployment Over 8%
Washington – Ann Kirkpatrick supported the $787 billion ‘stimulus’ plan, which passed a mountain of new debt onto Arizona families and promised to create new jobs, but is yet to create any hint of economic recovery. Especially with June unemployment numbers rising above 8 percent, Kirkpatrick’s support for her party leaders’ destructive economic agenda becomes more and more toxic.
In Sunday’s paper, the Arizona Republic highlighted that Arizona has yet to see any real benefits from the Democrats’ spending binge:
“Four months after the federal stimulus was signed into law, most stimulus-backed projects in Arizona, intended to create jobs, are still on the drawing board. That means agencies and contractors are biding their time even as the state’s jobless picture grows bleaker…
… But officials say major projects, such as a $199 million border station in Nogales, will take months before work can begin. Many grants, such as a $600,000 proposal by a Scottsdale firm to install solar panels on low-income housing, are also in limbo. The funding delays mean many companies cannot hire more workers for stimulus projects, tamping down job creation for now…
… Within days of the stimulus becoming law, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development informed Arizona it could expect $153 million. Four months later, almost none of the funds are available yet…” (“Stimulus is more like a slow trickle, Job losses mounting as employers wait for funds,” Arizona Republic, July 5, 2009)
“With almost one in ten Arizonans out of work, Ann Kirkpatrick owes Arizona’s hardworking middle-class families an explanation as to where the jobs she promised are,” said NRCC Communications Director Ken Spain. “Instead of simply bowing to her party bosses and voting for every tax-and-spend bill that comes her way, it is time for Kirkpatrick to stand up to Nancy Pelosi and work to create jobs in Arizona.”
Last week, the Department of Labor announced that an additional 467,000 Americans lost their jobs in June. With Arizona unemployment already projected at 8.2 percent (May 2009), the national unemployment rate rose yet again in June and reached a 26-year high of 9.5 percent. As Democrat leaders scramble to defend their job killing agenda, Arizona families are left to wonder: Where are the jobs? And how much higher will unemployment rise before Ann Kirkpatrick finally makes her constituents’ values a higher priority than Nancy Pelosi’s political agenda?