The title of this post (of course ripped off from one of my favorite movies ever, Dr. Strangelove) relates to a portion of an op-ed that our junior Senator published in the Worcester Telegram yesterday. The gist of the op-ed is that Scott Brown loves jobs. Gosh, he just loves ’em. But here’s the part that struck me as really odd. After proposing that Congress pass a bunch of international trade agreements, he adds this:
Finally, we need to help our workers who are in career transition because of international trade. When the Senate begins debate on the trade agreements, we must remember the importance of the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program. TAA provides re-employment services and training for workers who have lost their jobs or suffered a reduction in hours or wages because of an increase in imports from abroad. We must continue to help those who, through no fault of their own, are still looking for work.
Wow, that’s shocking for a couple of reasons. First, the best thing that’s happened to the TAA program recently was [drum roll…] the stimulus bill!
The program was expanded again with the stimulus act in 2009 after Obama’s election. Renamed the Trade and Globalization Adjustment Assistance Act, the program added workers who’d been laid off from service jobs. It also extended financial aid another six months and offered a heftier health insurance benefit.
In all, the annual appropriation available to states went from $220 million to $575 million.
So that bad ol’ stimulus bill, the one that Brown loves to hate, claiming – falsely – that it “didn’t create one new job,” that’s the bill that did exactly what Brown now says is so important, namely, boosting the Trade Adjustment Assistance program to “help those who, through no fault of their own, are still looking for work.” So, Scott, which is it? Stimulus good, or stimulus bad?
Second, speaking of “help[ing] those who, through no fault of their own, are still looking for work,” does anyone really need to be reminded of Brown’s repeated stands against extending unemployment benefits in the Senate? Did he really think nobody would remember?
Third, I wonder what it is about this particular job training program that Brown loves so much, since the record suggests that he’s happy to throw other job training for MA residents under the bus. Back in March, the Republicans floated a temporary spending plan that would have cut billions of dollars from worthy programs, including specifically over $55 million for job training in Massachusetts. It failed, but Brown voted for it. Thanks for nothing, Senator.
Of course, Scott Brown is not the only stimulus hypocrite in his party. Take Tim Pawlenty, whose claim to be the GOP’s new “truth-teller” looks increasingly hilarious with each passing day. Up in New Hampshire, Pawlenty took the usual (false) pot-shots at the stimulus bill. What he didn’t mention is that he used billions of dollars of stimulus money to balance his own budget in Minnesota. In other words, without the stimulus bill, Pawlenty’s state would have been even deeper in the crapper than Pawlenty actually left it. Pawlenty got one thing right, though – he asks the right question:
“The real question is did it work,” Pawlenty said.
The real answer, of course, is “yes.” Just ask Scott Brown.
johnk says
Seems like they will come in handy next year. There is going to be a lot of material. Brown has a voting record now.
David says
I find tags to be frustrating, but maybe I should just pick one and use it for all posts that might be campaign-related, like this one. How about “beatable”? That’s my favorite Twitter hashtag for things like this.
johnk says
n/t
stomv says
I’d tag this post:
brown, jobs, stimulus, arra, taa, unemployment, pawlenty
David says
is that there’s no way of standardizing them, at least not that I know of. For instance, your suggestion could also come out:
scott brown, job training, recovery act, globalization, job loss, tim pawlenty
stomv says
it is true that there isn’t a rigid, formal way to standardize them. However, there is a way… in the same sense that local slang and accent is standardized. It just happens organically. Some rules help:
* one word whenever possible
* lower case
Also, a way to help the standardization process along: a hashtag histogram. What hashtags are the most possible? What is out in the “tail” of the distro? Check the tail… and help folks see that there’s a more common tag in use. It will never have perfect convergence, but tags will converge fairly quickly. Heck, look at twitter tags: they converge in 10s of minutes.
If the Editors Three decide to do tags and decide on a consistent format among them, the rest of us will follow along on their formatting. For the most part. Those who don’t won’t have useful tags.