The New New Deal (74 page)

289
“We’re essentially franchisees”:
Grunwald, “Republicans in Distress,”
Time
.

290
a young conservative named Marco Rubio:
Michael Grunwald, “GOP at War with Itself in Florida Senate Race,”
Time
, August 12, 2009,
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1915837,00.html
.

291
love emails about “magnificent gentle kisses” and worse:
“Exclusive: Read E-mails Between Sanford, Woman,”
The State
, June 25, 2009.

292
“I think even our critics would agree that at the very least, we’ve been busy”:
Obama speech at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., April 14, 2009,
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=86000
.

293
“The obsession with race”:
Mike Allen, Jim Vandehei, and John Harris, “100 Days: How Obama Changed D.C.,”
Politico
, April 24, 2009,
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/21546.html
.

294
the
New York Times
ran a story:
Peter Baker, “Familiar Obama Phrase Being Groomed as a Slogan,”
New York Times
, May 15, 2009.

295
Doris Kearns Goodwin said it sounded like a woman’s girdle:
John B. Judis, “The Unnecessary Fall,”
The New Republic
, August 12, 2010.

296
“The recession has entered a new phase”:
Neil Irwin and Annys Shin, “In Poor Jobs Numbers, Hints of Improvement,”
Washington Post
, May 9, 2009.

297
“She hasn’t found any yet”:
YouTube video of Ellie Mae available at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl_q0afUl0E
.

298
“By any objective standard, this has been a failure”:
Mitch McConnell on
Meet the Press
, CBS, July 19, 2009.

299
“Fiscal stimulus is a well-tested antibiotic”:
Christina D. Romer, “So, Is It Working?: An Assessment of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act at the Five-Month Mark,” Speech at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., August 6, 2009,
http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~cromer/DCEconClub.pdf
.

300
Jared Bernstein learned this the hard way:
White House press briefing, June 8, 2009,
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Briefing-by-Press-Secretary-Robert-Gibbs-with-Jared-Bernstein-the-Vice-Presidents-Chief-Economist-6-8-09
.

301
Obama wrote “No”—and underlined it:
Ryan Lizza, “The Obama Memos,”
The New Yorker
, January 30, 2012,
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/01/30/120130fa_fact_lizza
.

302
Boehner scoffed on Fox News that in Ohio:
John Boehner on
Fox News Sunday
, July 5, 2009.

303
critics who “are already judging the effort a failure”:
Obama weekly address, July 11, 2009,
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=86398
.

304
“I know voters in Ohio”:
Eric Cantor on Fox News, July 9, 2009.

305
“just when the Recovery Act was providing its maximum benefit”:
Mark Zandi testimony before the Joint Economic Committee, October 29, 2009.

306
Bernanke helped save the global economy:
Michael Grunwald, “Person of the Year 2009: Ben Bernanke,”
Time
, December 16, 2009,
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1946375_1947251_1947520,00.html
. When I was working on my Bernanke profile, one White House official suggested that since fiscal stimulus was just as important as monetary stimulus,
Time
should expand my story into another “Committee to Save the World” cover like the one featuring Summers, Rubin, and Greenspan in February 1999. I guess I did this book instead.

307
But the data told a powerful story:
“The Economic Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009: First Quarterly Report,” White House Council of Economic Advisers, September 10, 2009,
http://www.whitehouse.gov/assets/documents/CEA_ARRA_Report_Final.pdf
.

308
“What can you sell when you do not have the White House”:
Ben Smith, “Exclusive: RNC Document Mocks Donors, Plays on ‘Fear,’”
Politico
, March 3, 2010,
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/33866.html
.

309
Obama asked Grassley point-blank:
Richard Wolffe,
Revival: The Struggle for Survival Inside the Obama White House
(New York: Crown, 2010), p. 70.

310
Porkulus was all about dubious-sounding projects:
Scott Mayerowitz and Nathalie
Tadena, “Stimulus Waste? The $3.4 Million Turtle Crossing,” ABC News, July 10, 2009,
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Economy/story?id=8045022
; David Saltonstall, “Drudge Story on Pork Draws Ire from President Obama’s Agriculture Chief,”
New York Daily News
, July 21, 2009; Dan Eggen, “Former Hospital CEO Rick Scott Leads Opposition to Obama on Health Care,”
Washington Post
, May 11, 2009.

311
the stimulus had added at least 2 percent to GDP:
Calmes and Cooper, “New Consensus Sees Stimulus Package as Worthy Step.”

312
And the administration had fulfilled all of its pledges:
“Roadmap to Recovery: Day 200,” White House report, September 2009.

313
One poll found that 45 percent of Americans:
Rasmussen survey, June 10, 2009; Joe Biden, “What You Might Not Know About the Recovery,”
New York Times
, July 26, 2009; Biden speech at Brookings Institution, September 3, 2009,
http://www.brookings.edu/events/2009/0903_recovery_biden.aspx
.

314
the event ended up in a department briefing room:
Obama remarks at Department of Transportation, April 13, 2009,
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=85995
.

315
the Recovery Act logo:
Logo available at
http://www.recovery.gov/News/mediakit/Picture%20Library/circle_recovery_logo.jpg
.

14. Change Is Hard

316
In the fall of 2009:
“Funds Continue to Provide Fiscal Relief to States and Localities, While Accountability and Reporting Challenges Need to Be Fully Addressed,” Government Accountability Office, September 23, 2009,
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09-1016
.

317
At an event at a Home Depot in Virginia:
Obama remarks in Alexandria, Virginia, December 15, 2009,
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=86995
.

318
“green the ghetto”:
Van Jones,
The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems
(New York: HarperOne, 2008).

319
The Government Accountability Office, the department’s inspector general, and the media:
“Factors Affecting the Department of Energy’s Program Implementation,” GAO, March 4, 2010,
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-10-497T
; “Progress in Implementing the Department of Energy’s Weatherization Assistance Program Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,” Department of Energy, Office of Inspector General, February 2010,
http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/igprod/documents/OAS-RA-10-04.pdf
.

320
“Massive Funding: BBBBBBBBILLIONS!”:
PowerPoint presentation provided to author.

321
audits that found sporadic cases of shoddy work:
For example, “The State of Illinois Weatherization Assistance Program,” DOE Office of Inspector General, October 2010,
http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/igprod/documents/OAS-RA-11-01.pdf
. There were similar problems in West Virginia and several other states.

322
The African Heritage Dancers and Drummers of Washington:
Letter from Representative Fred Upton to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, November 23, 2010,
http://upton.house.gov/UploadedFiles/Letter_to_Sec_Chu.pdf
.

323
a follow-up by the GAO found the program’s start-up problems were largely solved:
“Progress and Challenges in Spending Weatherization Funds,” GAO, December 2011,
http://www.gao.gov/assets/590/587064.pdf
.

324
not the clean-energy economy:
“AWEA Year End 2009 Market Report,” American
Wind Energy Association, January 2010; “US Solar Industry Year in Review 2009,” Solar Energy Industries Association, April 15, 2010.

325
the saga of Serious Materials: Glenn Beck
, January 20, 2010.

326
The lead inquisitors were Senators Tom Coburn and John McCain:
Coburn and McCain issued two reports: “Stimulus Checkup: A Closer Look at 100 Projects Funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,” December 2009; and “Summertime Blues: 100 Stimulus Projects That Give Taxpayers the Blues,” August 2010. Coburn also issued a report by himself in June 2009: “100 Stimulus Projects: A Second Opinion.” All three are available at
http://www.coburn.senate.gov//files/10/25/81/f102581/public/?p=OversightAction
.

327
“Exclusive: Jobs ‘Saved or Created’ in Congressional Districts That Don’t Exist”:
Jonathan Karl, ABC News, November 16, 2009,
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/jobs-saved-created-congressional-districts-exist/story?id=9097853#.T34Fm79AZqs
.

328
“To read some coverage”:
Earl Devaney, Chairman’s Corner blog, Recovery.gov, March 22, 2010,
http://www.recovery.gov/News/chairman/Pages/march222010.aspx
.

329
“Now you can go right online”: Glenn Beck
, July 20, 2009.

330
“Undercounting Concerns Stimulus Investigators”:
Matt Kelley,
USA Today
, November 30, 2009.

331
a poll during the controversy: Washington Post
/ABC News poll, November 2009.

332
“Promises, Promises: Web Site Likely to Fall Short”:
Philip Elliot, Associated Press, February 18, 2009.

333
“the stimulus has done more to promote transparency”:
Ryan Holeywell, “Did the Stimulus Do Anything for Transparency?”
Governing
, February 2012.

334
“Traffic Set to Slow as Stimulus Gears Up”:
Brad Heath,
USA Today
, May 4, 2009.

335
“Stimulus Projects Bypass Hard-Hit States”:
Heath,
USA Today
, May 27, 2009.

336
“Pace of New Stimulus Spending Slows”:
Heath,
USA Today
, September 13, 2009.

337
“Stimulus Takes Detour Around Ailing Metropolitan Areas”:
Heath,
USA Today
, September 24, 2009.

338
“Metro Areas Get Chunk of Rural Stimulus Aid”:
Heath,
USA Today
, December 27, 2009.

339
Another example from my overflowing gotcha file:
Jennifer LaFleur, “Stimulus Weatherization Aid Favors Cold Regions,” ProPublica, May 7, 2009; Michael Cooper, “Stimulus Funds Spent to Keep Sun Belt Cool,”
New York Times
, June 7, 2009.

340
the
Washington Post,
was a serial offender:
ClimateProgress has catalogued the
Post
’s witch hunt:
http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/12/01/379444/washington-post-solyndra-reporting/
. For example, the
Post
did forty-three articles on Solyndra in the fall of 2011, and twenty-six mentioned that one of its investors, George Kaiser, was an Obama fund-raiser. (He has testified under oath that he never discussed Solyndra with the administration. Nobody has contradicted him.) Only one story mentioned that the influential Republican Walton family also invested in Solyndra. Only one mentioned that the Bush administration had pushed the loan as well. Only one mentioned that the loan program had plenty of reserves to cover the Solyndra default. And several stories included the kind of misleading statistics and out-of-context quotes that made it clear the reporters were hunting for a scalp.

341
One story tarred CleanTech for Obama cofounder Sanjay Wagle:
Carol D. Leonnig and Joe Stephens, “Federal Funds Flow to Clean-Energy Firms with Obama Administration Ties,”
Washington Post
, February 14, 2012.

342
when national reporters focused on “the stimulus”:
I guess I should mention that I
was the main exception to all this stimulus negativity. My bosses at
Time
magazine thought I was bonkers; I spent months bugging them to let me write a story about how the stimulus is changing America, and then months bugging them to put it in the magazine. To their credit, they finally did. Michael Grunwald, “How the Stimulus Is Changing America,”
Time
, August 10, 2010,
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2013826,00.html
.

343
“If a school continues to fail its students year after year”:
Obama speech, March 1, 2010,
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=87595
.

344
That was the TIGER program:
Michael Grunwald, “Transportation Stimulus: Where Did the Federal Money Go?,” Time.com, September 13, 2010,
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2017466,00.html
.