Stimulus Jobs in China?

Republicans falsely claim that $2 billion went to employ Chinese workers.

Summary

In a bit of political payback, several Republicans are running false or misleading TV ads accusing their opponents of shipping jobs to China.

Rep. Lee Terry of Nebraska says that under President Barack Obama’s stimulus package "China gets $2 billion to build windmills" for U.S. wind farms, citing the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University. But Russ Choma, author of that report, says Chinese-owned companies received $2.6 million and manufactured three of the 4,232 wind turbines under the stimulus program.

Republican Austin Scott says Georgia Rep. Jim Marshall "sent nearly $2 billion overseas to create jobs in China." It is true that foreign-owned companies have received $2.4 billion in grants to develop wind farms in the U.S. But Choma said "more money went to creating jobs in the U.S. and Europe."

At least four other Republicans have recently aired ads that correctly say stimulus money has gone to create jobs in China — without saying how many — but then incorrectly go on to say that no jobs have been created in their district or state.

The Congressional Budget Office says the stimulus — which is now estimated to cost taxpayers $814 billion by 2019 — increased the number of people employed in the U.S. by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million through June. That includes jobs that were created in the districts of all four Republican candidates cited in our analysis below.

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