February 25, 2010 10:57 PM UTC

Damned If You Do...

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) is busily picking apart the recent interview of Senate candidate Jane Norton on the Fox News Channel–and we think they’ve got an interesting angle here, though not the one you see at first glance:

Colorado families struggling with unemployment and economic challenges got their answer yesterday on if Senate candidate Jane Norton would support a job creation bill – a resounding No.  Yesterday, Norton responded to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s request for her position on the bipartisan jobs bill, which passed the Senate yesterday on a bipartisan basis, and that promises to bring many good jobs to Colorado and over one million new jobs across the country.  Despite the bill’s promise of creating new jobs, Norton told Fox News that she would have voted to kill the bill had she been in the Senate because a bill that will create 1 million new jobs was “too small.” [Pols emphasis]

…The HIRE Act, which Norton came out in opposition to yesterday, has four key provisions, including a payroll tax holiday for businesses to encourage hiring, additional funds to help small businesses expand, an extension of the Highway Trust Fund to allow more infrastructure investments, and an expansion of the Build America Bonds program to allow states finance infrastructure projects.  According to a new report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which Norton also opposed, created over 2 million jobs last year, has boosted the US economy by 3.5%, and has lowered the unemployment rate by up to 2.1%.  The CBO projects that the stimulus will have an even greater impact in 2010.

As you can see, the main emphasis from the DSCC is that Norton opposes this and other job-creating legislation Democrats have passed in the last year. We’d kind of like to know what Norton means, after planting her flag on a laundry list of things she things the government should have “no role” in, by “too small.” After all, wasn’t it made smaller…to win Republican votes?

Look we’re not naive, if the bill had been any “bigger,” it would have been too big and that would have been the story for Fox News. We’ve been around the block enough times to know Norton isn’t interested in endorsing any legislation Democrats put forward. We just wouldn’t have expected Norton to say any bill Democrats support is “too small,” the Tea Party might not get the subtleties.