On the recordFebruary 23, 2010
As we have said many times recently, we are acknowledging and recognizing the 1-year anniversary of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. It is interesting on these anniversaries that we have considerable discussions about whether the act, or any other act, was successful or not. Just watching Sunday morning's national talk shows was a very interesting experience, because we had on one show Governor Granholm from Michigan and Governor Barbour from Mississippi, and you would have believed that the two of them came from different planets or at least that they were talking about two very different pieces of legislation. Jennifer Granholm talked about tens of thousands of jobs being created in Michigan, beginning the foundation, setting the foundation for a new explosion of battery technologies and energy technologies. Governor Barbour on the other hand said, 'Well, we got a few jobs, we've paved a few roads, but it really wasn't that good of a program.' My own Senator and my constituent, Senator McConnell, was on another talk show saying, 'Yeah, the governors like it. It funds a lot of government jobs.' Well, I am going to get to that in a minute, because those government jobs are not just government jobs. Those are not bureaucrats. Those are teachers, those are firefighters, those are police officers. Those are people who are providing critical public services to our constituents.
