Following our Congressman on Twitter is an absolute pleasure. It lets me encounter items like this:As economy improves, beware politicians taking credit. Stimulus was designed to create jobs, but jobs lag behind. This is an amazing amount of wrong to pack into a Twitter post.
Note, just to begin, that the first sentence predicts economic recovery and the second sentence downplays recovery.
Next, let's think about the number of projects Congressman Rehberg has taken credit for despite voting against (including a number in the jobs recovery bill).
Third, let's note that the reason why "jobs lag behind" is that the Bush/Rehberg recession was worse than anticipated by the White House. Our Congressman is right that jobs lag behind -- but it was his party driving economic policy in this country for the last 8-14 years, depending on whether we're counting WH or Congress or both. Add in Randian Fed chief Greenspan and the run is quite long.
In his time in Congress, I've not seen many Rehberg economic proposals that make much sense. His constant criticism of textbook macroeconomics, his outright denial of the problems associated with healthcare inflation, and his steady vote for the Bush Administration tell me that I need to beware his taking credit for anything economically related.
I should also note that our Congressman recently claimed to be paying his own health insurance tab and didn't respond to my mild fact-checking. Members of Congress have 2/3 of their premiums covered. As a millionaire, picking up that other 1/3 is unsurprisingly not much of a problem. Perhaps if our U.S. Representative's financial situation more closely mirrored that of the typical Montanan, we'd see a different tone on healthcare. |
