Stimulus Money Goes Overseas

Stimulus money goes overseas - Meredith Shiner - POLITICO.com

Senate Democrats are furious that the vast majority of grants from the clean-energy program from last year’s stimulus have been awarded to foreign companies.

Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Jon Tester of Montana announced Wednesday a new initiative to require the "Buy America" provision of the stimulus to all programs, not just the government ones. A study done by the Investigative Reporting Workshop found that 79 percent of the $2 billion in clean-energy grants allocated since Sept. 1, 2009, has gone to foreign wind companies.

"We are demanding the Obama administration suspend this program immediately ... [and] indefinitely," Schumer said. "We are sending a letter to Secretary [Timothy] Geithner asking him to halt all payouts for this program until we in Congress can go back and fix this law."

The senators highlighted a wind farm project in west Texas, which received stimulus aid and is projected to create 3,000 jobs in China and a tenth as many in the United States.

"Some of us complained about this to the administration back in November when this project was first announced, so it's not that they don't know about it, but the Energy Department in their reply said they were powerless to stop it because projects like this are automatically eligible for the grants. That answer is not good enough," Schumer said. "The goal of the stimulus is to strengthen the American economy, and that means creating jobs here in the U.S. not in China."

By rewriting the section of the stimulus act dealing with clean-energy projects, the senators hope to circumvent the Obama administration and force the grants to be awarded to U.S. companies.

The Democrats believe the initiative would garner broad bipartisan support, with Schumer adding that they "would try to add something as soon as possible," given the 10 percent domestic unemployment rate and the stated objectives of the Reinvestment and Recovery Act.

They also seek to extend the scope of "Buy America" to the entire stimulus legislation. Brown expressed his dismay at a Swedish company's press release distributed recently after it was commissioned to produce stemware for the State Department — a bid an Ohio company lost.

"It's one issue after another, after another," Brown said. "It's time our government stood on the side of American workers."

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1. Just LOOK at the condition of the party in power under President Pie-In-The-Face.

2. You've got Bawney Fwank down in Pelosi's Place all perturbed at Chris Dead Dodd upstairs over Obama's #3 domestic priority, financial regulatory reform.

Barney Frank: Chris Dodd deal like 'a bad joke' - Eamon Javers and Victoria McGrane - POLITICO.com

3. You've got the CBC taking their digs at the Dogs downstairs over Obama's newest STIMULUS which he can't call a STIMULUS.

House Democrats short on votes for jobs bill - Lisa Lerer - POLITICO.com

4. We all watched Hassled Harry UNDERCUT the president on the STIMULUS which can't be called a STIMULUS, all the way down to an embarrassing 15B.

5. Don't Ask Don't Tell, which the addled admin agonized over all day before finally deciding to put it IN the SOTU which has been completely forgotten, is going nowhere.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/33861.html

6. Indeed, obtuse Obama might just as well have never made a SOTU, every measure he called for in his address to Joint Assembled is already the subject of administrative amnesia.

7. Oblivious Obama REALLY HAS forgotten all about his BANK TAX, his SPENDING FREEZE, his DEBT COMMISSION...

8. Yesterday, the party pledged to DROP cap and trade, did you hear?

Dems drop cap-and-trade to woo GOP - Lisa Lerer - POLITICO.com

9. Meanwhile, the president's Chief of Staff has been all over Washington trashing his boss, suggesting that if Obama had only listened to him everything would be swell.

Broder rips WaPo colleagues - Michael Calderone - POLITICO.com

10. Dang, even the DEAN is dumbfounded.

11. And the most corrupt character in the capitol, the Greasy Slickster from Harlem, is suddenly OUT so that Stark Raving Stark can grab his gavel.

Rangel's replacement: Pete Stark - Jonathan Allen - POLITICO.com

12. In the Southern Tier of New York the party is incubating its own little Mark Foley affair.

Hoyer knew of Massa allegations - John Bresnahan and Josh Kraushaar - POLITICO.com

13. And now THIS.

14. Senior democrat senators "furious" with the White House over STIMULUS (there's that s-word again) money going overseas.

15. Schumer?

16. Do you all KNOW Schumer?

17. He's "demanding" that "the administration" STOP what it's doing "immediately" and "indefinitely?"

18. Wow!

19. Who's next, Biden?

20. The party comprehensive is imploding.

21. This is what a complete lack of leadership delivers.

22. The STIMULUS failed.

23. Too much of it is going OVERSEAS.

24. NONE of it should be going overseas.

25. SCHUMER's pissed.

26. At the president.

27. Wow!

28. Apparently, a couple people in power comprehend, ie, GET IT.

29. Obama is the most incompetent politician America has ever produced.

30. Just LOOK what he's done to his party.

The Prof