This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Feb. 17, 2010 - While President Barack Obama is marking the one-year anniversary of congressional approval of the federal $800 billion stimulus package in Washington, politicians on both sides are also talking economics back in Missouri.
By coincidence or design, Gov. Jay Nixon, a fellow Democrat, was in town today to promote state efforts to help local small businesses. And across the state, U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Springfield and a candidate for the U.S. Senate, is coming under Democratic fire because he appeared at the groundbreaking for a project partially funded with federal stimulus money, which Blunt had opposed.
Nixon was at Sweetie Pie's restaurant, 4270 Manchester Ave., in St. Louis to announce that $425,227 in state economic incentives was being awarded to restaurant owner Robbie Montgomery to cover the costs of cleaning up hazardous waste at a site at 3643 Delmar Blvd., where she plans to build a fourth restaurant/banquet operation.
The incentives, under the state's Brownfield Development program, had nothing to do with the federal stimulus program. But Nixon said federal stimulus money had helped curb further economic losses in the state.
State Office of Administration director Kelvin Simmons, who accompanied Nixon, said that his office had been closely monitoring how federal stimulus money had been spent in the state. The Office of Administration has calculated that stimulus aid preserved or created 13,700 jobs in the state during the last three months of 2009.
The differences in the perception of the federal stimulus aid, pro and con, are particularly striking in the St. Louis area's 3rd congressional district, where Democratic incumbent Russ Carnahan rolled out this week his "strategic economic action plan.''
Among other things, the congressman's plan advocates:
- tax breaks for small business;
- more spending on transportation and infrastructure projects;
- more innovation in science;
- improvements in public education;
- the expansion of clean energy and alternatives to fossil fuels.
While his plan is not directly tied to the federal stimulus, Carnahan repeatedly made a point during his Tuesday news conference of highlighting how the stimulus had, in his view, stemmed the national economic downturn and prevented a full-blown Depression. Afterwards, he said in an interview that his plan offered some post-stimulus economic steps.
The congressman was joined by several area business people and Dennis Melton, the St. Louis district chief for the U.S. Small Business Administration. Melton said that bank credit was finally loosening up and that "it's important we get the word out that the stimulus has been successful."
Contrast that view with Republican rival Ed Martin, who today is asking supporters to mark the stimulus package's anniversary by helping him raise $9,000.
Martin contended that the total is equivalent to $100 for every million of the $90 million dollars in stimulus aid that went to the congressman's brother, Tom Carnahan, who helped found a windmill farm in central Missouri's DeKalb County. Vice President Joe Biden stopped by the farm last year and highlighted it as an example of windpower technology that the Obama administration is encouraging.
But Martin asserts that the windmill farm was a waste of tax dollars, an example of nepotism and of how, in his view, the stimulus has failed to work. Among other things, Martin cites the state and federal unemployment rates, which hover close to 10 percent.
Martin also opposes the proposed federal jobs bill (now in limbo in the U.S. Senate), saying that the best way to help business is reduce federal taxes and regulations.
Carnahan, meanwhile, says that federal action on a variety of fronts -- not just the stimulus -- will determine the future fortunes of the nation's economy -- and, in particular, small businesses.
One of the problems plaguing U.S. businesses, he said, is the uncertainty caused by the uncertain fate of the Democratic efforts to revamp the health-care system and to put the nation in the forefront of the global effort to shift from fossil fuels.
Carnahan said during an interview that he remained a supporter of the health-care bill that passed the House months ago, and that he hoped his party's effort to expand access to health care wouldn't die because of the stalemate in the U.S. Senate, where Democrats no longer have a filibuster-proof 60-vote majority.
He contends that the health-care debate is an economic issue because U.S. businesses increasingly can't afford to offer health-care benefits in the wake of rising insurance costs.
