Cantor To Host Job Fair With Employers Stimulated By Over $50 Million In Recovery Act Funds
House Minority Whip Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) has been one of the Recovery Act’s most vocal critics. After whipping his caucus into uniformly opposing the stimulus, Cantor has been the lead spokesman decrying the program as a failure. Ignoring evidence that that the stimulus is helping to turn around the economy, Cantor repeatedly says that […]
House Minority Whip Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) has been one of the Recovery Act’s most vocal critics. After whipping his caucus into uniformly opposing the stimulus, Cantor has been the lead spokesman decrying the program as a failure. Ignoring evidence that that the stimulus is helping to turn around the economy, Cantor repeatedly says that it is “failing” to “create jobs.”
As ThinkProgress reported last year, despite his withering attacks on the stimulus, Cantor hosted two job fairs filled with employers hiring directly because of stimulus grants and programs. Tomorrow, Cantor intends to again host a job fair stimulated by jobs made possible through the Recovery Act:
– Cantor job fair employer AT&T has received two contracts totaling $837,550 from the Recovery Act.
– Cantor job fair employer Bryant & Stratton College received contracts totaling $209,571 from the Recovery Act.
– Cantor job fair employer Chesterfield County received grants totaling $406,773 from the Recovery Act.
– Cantor job fair employer CSX Transportation received grants totaling over $5.7 million from the Recovery Act.
– Cantor job fair employer Goodwill Industries International has received grants of over $6.4 million from the Recovery Act.
– Cantor job fair employer Northrop Grumman Corporation has received grants of over $2.6 million from the Recovery Act.
– Cantor job fair employer University of Richmond has received grants totaling $750,964 from the Recovery Act.
– Cantor job fair employer Nationwide Insurance has received grants totaling $25,617 from the Recovery Act.
– Cantor job fair employer United Way of Greater Richmond has received a $61,125 grant from the Recovery Act.
According to a ThinkProgress review of contracts from the Recovery.gov website, employers at the Cantor job fair tomorrow have received approximately $52,716,129 from the stimulus.
While Cantor has tried to score political points slamming the stimulus as an utter failure, he has relied on it as a crutch to bring both private and public sector jobs to his district. Cantor’s GOP colleagues — who helped him try to kill the stimulus — have similarly gone back to their district to claim credit for stimulus programs. A ThinkProgress report released on the one year anniversary of the stimulus highlights over half the GOP caucus, 114 lawmakers, who voted to kill the stimulus then took credit for its success.
Fox News promoted Tea Party town halls because they made ?better television.?
Bill Hemmer, a co-anchor of Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” program, revealed in a profile of him published today why his network decided to highlight last August’s violent, tumultuous congressional town halls. In an interview with Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz, Hemmer discussed how his show’s ratings have grown over the past year and suggested […]
Bill Hemmer, a co-anchor of Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” program, revealed in a profile of him published today why his network decided to highlight last August’s violent, tumultuous congressional town halls. In an interview with Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz, Hemmer discussed how his show’s ratings have grown over the past year and suggested that the program’s decision to promote Tea Party town hall antics was based on attracting viewers:
A turning point, in Hemmer’s view, came during the health care debate in the summer of 2009: “We covered those town hall meetings with greater vigor than our competition, and we were rewarded with viewers. It was better television.”
Another view is that Fox seized upon the footage of angry constituents shouting at Democratic members of Congress because it undermined the president’s push for health care reform. Hemmer begs to differ. “I don’t think it was anger toward the Obama administration,” he says. “It was an honest insecurity on the part of average Americans.”
As Mediaite’s Steve Krakauer pointed out in a post this morning, “It’s hard to argue that ‘better television’ didn’t also mean more polarizing, politically one-sided television.” When Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) appeared on Fox and Friends in April, he told the anchors, “You guys deserve more credit for marshaling that anger than the Tea Partiers do.” Fox News, of course, has an extensive record of promoting and hyping Tea Party and anti-Obama protests. Their advocacy may just be an effort to increase ratings, as Hemmer suggests; after all, NBC’s Chuck Todd said earlier this year that the Tea Party’s “favorable rating among Fox viewers is through the roof.” Then again, Fox’s enraptured coverage might just be part of the network’s stated goal to serve as the Obama administration’s “enemy number one.”
– William Tomasko
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