Anniversary Highlights Fundamental Difference Between

President’s “Solyndra Economy” & GOP’s “Keystone Economy”

Washington, D.C. – Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Vice Chair of the House Republican Conference, and other House Republican leaders held a press conference today marking the three-year anniversary of President Obama’s failed $787 billion stimulus bill.  The leaders launched a new House republican theme – the “Solyndra Economy” versus the “Keystone Economy” – specifically how President Obama’s government-run policies have failed, while the House Republicans’ focus on the private sector will succeed.   

“The Administration promised Congress – and the American people – that if the stimulus bill passed, the unemployment rate would not exceed 8 percent,” said Vice Chair McMorris Rodgers.  “Well, the unemployment rate did exceed 8 percent two months later, and it’s been over 8 percent for 36 straight months.  The stimulus clearly failed.  In fact, it made things worse.

“The most famous example of failed stimulus spending is Solyndra – a failed green energy company which received $500 million from taxpayers and then went bankrupt.  Meanwhile, the President recently killed the Keystone project – a project that has bipartisan support, would create tens of thousands of jobs, and reduce our dangerous dependence on Mideast oil.  And so what we have here is a fundamental difference between the President’s ‘Solyndra Economy’ – in which the President uses your tax money to reward the special interests, and the House Republican’s ‘Keystone Economy,’ in which the private sector is in charge, creating jobs and leading innovation, and government – for the most part – just gets out of the way.” 

Vice Chair McMorris Rodgers hosted today’s press conference.  Other members who attended were Rep. Lee Terry (R-NE), Rep. Diane Black (R-TN), Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle (R-NY), Rep. Tim Griffin (R-AR), Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA), and Rep. Todd Young (R-IN).

“Now is the time to pick the ‘Keystone Economy’ over the ‘Solyndra Economy,’ to pick the American people over Big Government, and to pick prosperity over stagnation,” said Vice Chair McMorris Rodgers.