"We were unaware."
"Perhaps we could have done a better job vetting the company."
That's what Ted Strickland said today in response to the report that federal stimulus dollars utilized by Ted Strickland's appliance rebate program ended up producing jobs in Texas and Central America.
If only someone had provided some recommendations for how to more responsibly spend these taxpayer stimulus dollars. How to make sure it wouldn't happen. How to ensure a company is properly vetted.
Oh wait, someone did.
From a letter Ohio's GOP congressional delegation sent to Governor Strickland in March of 2009:
And today, those same congressmen had some harsh words for not taking their advice.
“Ohioans deserve to know how their stimulus dollars are being spent, instead of shadowy backroom dealings,” said Congressman Pat Tiberi (R-Genoa Township). “We had hoped to shed light on the stimulus allocation process by asking the governor to bring in an independent oversight board. Instead, Governor Strickland seemed to think it was unnecessary; apparently it wasn’t. This money should have been used to get Ohioans back on the job. We take the responsibility of spending tax dollar seriously. It’s unfortunate the Strickland administration demonstrated such bad judgment.”
Boy, apparently you and the GOP Congressfolks from Ohio don't know squat about Ohio government.
ReplyDeleteThis contract was reviewed by a bipartisan panel. And approved. It's called the State Controlling Board.
Modern,
ReplyDeleteYour an idiot. Dems have a majority on the controlling board. If you did your research you would see it passed 4-3 with a majority of democrats approving the contract:
http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/03/23/copy/texas-company-awarded-appliance-rebate-contract.html?adsec=politics&sid=101
Um, that would still make it a bipartisan panel.
ReplyDeletePat-
ReplyDeleteAlso, wasn't Republican Jay Hottinger on the Controlling Board at the time? If so, that means he voted YES according to information in the Dispatch story you linked to.
All politics aside, if you're going to call someone an idiot, you should use correct grammar.
ReplyDeleteYOUR = possession
YOU'RE = you are
Then again, politics or otherwise, why you let facts get in the way of insult or spin?
*would
ReplyDeletescreen refreshed a little too quickly.
Ted. Fails. Again.
ReplyDeleteTypos aside, the point is that the Congressional Republicans are wrong in saying that Strickland should have listened to him. Another bipartisan panel was redundant and the fact that this occurred with a bipartisan vote of the Controlling Board suggests it wouldn't have prevent this from happening anyways.
ReplyDeleteThe goal of the programs was to stimulate the purchase of durable goods, many of which is produced by Whirlpool here in Ohio, which indicates that the program was largely successful in doing, doublingly their earnings in the 1Q and 2Q.