Vice President Joe Biden, overseeing the $787 billion economic stimulus plan, announced a new series of goals yesterday to measure success by year’s end.
Biden last set benchmarks in early June for 200 days since the bill was signed into law - and they were all met, though Republicans and other critics questioned how ambitious they really were.
“We’ve made great progress in the first seven months of Recovery Act implementation in 2009,’’ Biden said in a statement. “Now we want to finish the year even stronger.’’
The new goals include funding for battery manufacturing plants that can power 400,000 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles; starting 34 more construction and modernization projects at veterans hospitals and medical centers; beginning improvements in 105 more national parks; lending and leveraging $5 billion to more than 12,000 small businesses; and providing loans and funding to finance, build, or renovate more than 100,000 housing units.
Republicans quickly pointed out, however, that the goals don’t include a specific number of jobs, the bottom-line reason for the stimulus spending.
Last month, White House economists estimated that the recovery package had saved or created 1 million jobs toward a goal of 3.5 million by the end of 2010. But Republicans and many economists cast doubt on those figures, asserting that the Labor Department says that 2.4 million jobs have been lost during the recession since Obama signed the stimulus bill in February.
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On Oct. 21, Romney plans to host a New York City fund-raiser for Rick Lazio, a former Long Island congressman who announced his candidacy for governor last week. Lazio helped raise money for Romney’s 2008 presidential effort and played Giuliani in one of Romney’s debate-prep sessions during the GOP primaries.
“It’s a private fund-raiser and it’s not a public endorsement event,’’ said Romney’s spokesman, Eric Fehrnstrom. “But stay tuned.’’
The former Massachusetts governor is active in helping fellow Republicans as he continues to lay the groundwork for a possible repeat bid for the presidency in 2012.
Giuliani is reportedly considering his own gubernatorial bid, and is expected to announce any 2010 plans shortly. He briefly ran for the US Senate in 2000, but dropped out of the race due to medical and personal issues. The Republican nomination went instead to Lazio, who lost to Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton.
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The Freedom First PAC is similar to the Free and Strong America PAC that Mitt Romney, a potential rival in 2012, launched last year after Romney dropped out of the 2008 race.
“By helping candidates and translating our ideas into policies that everyone can relate to and support, we can turn back the growth of Washington and renew the promise of freedom,’’ Pawlenty said in a statement.
The PAC’s cochairmen are William H. Strong, the vice chairman of
The Democratic National Committee quickly pounced, saying that Pawlenty’s PAC is advised and led by “the same Washington lobbyists, insiders, and former advisers to President Bush whose brand of politics and approach to policies resulted in America being less secure at home, less respected in the rest of the world, and gave the United States the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.’’
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A White House aide confirms the president will attend an Oct. 23 luncheon on behalf of the governor, who is running for re-election next year but has been slow to collect campaign donations.
Later in the day, he will attend a dinner in Connecticut for Senator Chris Dodd, who is also up for reelection in 2010.
The visit will come less than a month after Patrick helped Obama by pressing the Legislature to create an interim senator to replace Senator Edward M. Kennedy. The appointment of Paul Kirk restored a filibuster-proof margin in the Senate Obama might need if he hopes to pass a health care overhaul.
By visiting before the end of 2009, Obama can help Patrick raise the maximum $500 from donors in this calendar year.
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