By Ronnie Ellis
CNHI News Service
LOUISVILLE —
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden took on critics of federal spending to stimulate the economy during a speech Monday at GE Appliance Park, saying the stimulus helped create nearly 500,000 new jobs in the first five months of the year.
Some of them — presently about 135 — are at the GE facility in Louisville after a $600 million investment by the company in three product lines of energy efficient appliances. The company made the investment with the help of $24 million in federal tax credits — part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — and $20 million in tax incentives from Kentucky. The new product lines eventually are expected to create 830 jobs, some of them moved from China and Mexico.
“So those who talk about this is big government,” said Biden before about 350 or so GE workers, “well, this is big government giving a little bit of help to jump start America to lead the world in the 21st century.”
Biden said critics of the federal stimulus, “including some here in Kentucky” — though he named neither Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell nor Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul — need to brush up on American history. He pointed to federal involvement in the first transcontinental railroad during the administration of the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln.
“What we are doing here today is nothing new,” Biden said of federal help to spur private investment. “It has been done throughout our history.”
He said the federal stimulus package, primarily through tax credits, will produce more than $5 billion in private sector investment.
“We cannot afford not to make these investments,” Biden said. “We’re laying a new foundation for a new economy with investments like we’re highlighting here today.” Biden said the country was “hemorrhaging jobs” when the Obama administration came to power but the federal stimulus has helped begin a recovery that produced 495,000 new jobs in the first five months of this year.
Near the end of Biden’s 23-minute speech on the production floor of the plant, GE Appliances and Lighting CEO James “Jim” Campbell appeared to faint, falling off his stool behind Biden.
But, as the crowd gasped and Biden asked if there were a doctor present, Campbell quickly got to his feet and walked off on his own power. Later, a GE spokeswoman said he was taken to a clinic for evaluation, but was thought to be alright.
Biden then ended his speech by saying: “America’s coming back. Kentucky’s coming back. American business is coming back, and we’re going to lead the world again.”
GE worker Paul Jantzen of Louisville, a member of Local 761, IUE-CWA, said he had voted Democratic all his life, but he and some of his colleagues are impatient with the efforts to revive the economy.
“We want to see things take off,” Jantzen said. “A lot of people want to return to work. But you have to spend money to put some people back to work. But I feel some of the policies they have put in place will eventually push us out of the recession.”
State Rep. Tom Burch, D-Louisville, represents the district in which the GE facility is located and worked there for 39 years, beginning in 1953 at the age of 21. The retired production manager recalled the facility which employs just more than 4,000 once had as many as 23,000 workers and said he wants to see jobs exported to other countries returned to Louisville.
“Bring out jobs back from Mexico,” Burch said. “Our product here is better, our quality is better.”
Paul, the Republican Senate candidate, issued a statement after the event which said, “Government is not very good at creating jobs. President Obama’s stimulus package cost $413,000 per job created and those jobs largely went to political cronies.”
The statement also criticized his Democratic opponent Jack Conway for “ducking” the event, in line with his attempts to link Conway with Obama who is unpopular in Kentucky.
According to his campaign consultant Mark Riddle, Conway was in Washington with former Sen. Wendell Ford, who was to introduce Conway to incumbent Democratic senators. In his place, Riddle said, he and Conway’s wife, Elizabeth, attended Biden’s speech.
Ronnie Ellis writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com. Follow CNHI News Service stories on Twitter at www.twitter.com/cnhifrankfort. The Richmond Register is a CNHI newspaper.
