Romney Makes Closing Argument On Economy At Firm That Benefited From Stimulus, Touts Government Projects #hypocrisy
thinkprogress.org/election/2012/10/26/1094441/romney-makes-closing-argument-on-economy-at-firm-th...
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Romney makes closing economic argument at firm that benefited substantially from stimulus funds http://t.co/TsjaoqzBRomney Makes Closing Argument At Firm That Benefited From Stimulus Funds
By Josh Dorner on Oct 26, 2012 at 8:10 am
On Friday, Mitt Romney will make his closing argument on the economy in what his campaign is touting as a major address. The site Romney has chosen, however, exposes the hypocrisy and fallaciousness of one of Romney’s central economic arguments: the notion that government has no role in growing the private economy and helping businesses expand. Romney frequently mocks Obama’s “didn’t build it” remarks and routinely derides the 2009 Recovery Act as a failure that did nothing to create jobs.
But now, the GOP presidential candidate is delivering one of the last speeches of the campaign at Kinzler Construction Services in Ames, Iowa. A search of Recovery.gov shows that the firm benefited from hundreds of thousands of dollars in contracts funded by the Recovery Act. Kinzler received $649,944 in contracts under stimulus-funded Department of Energy weatherization programs. The company also received $39,370 as a sub-contractor on a federal government contract to renovate a building owned by the federal government, making for a total of $689,314 in stimulus funds.
The firm’s website even includes a section touting its “featured projects.” Several of the projects appear to be publicly-funded renovation or construction projects, including public schools in Nebraska and Iowa, a community center in Iowa, and the new central station for Des Moines’ public transportation system: