ABC’s Moran Shares Frustration Public Doesn’t Appreciate ‘Stimulus’ Benefits

Hosting Sunday’s This Week on ABC, Terry Moran noted during the past week the Obama administration “fanned out across the country” to trumpet how “the stimulus worked,” yet President Obama “sounded a little frustrated that people don't get it” as, Moran fretted: “What did they do wrong? They're playing defense on what was one of their major accomplishments.”

Earlier in his interview with California's Arnold Schwarzenegger and Pennsylvania's Ed Rendell, whom Moran touted as “two prominent Governors who call it like it is,” Moran despaired at the shrinking size of the “jobs bill,” worried $15 billion is not enough and whether “there needs to be another stimulus” bill:

The Senate is taking up a jobs bill this week. $15 billion. When it started at the White House, it was $200 billion. The House passed $185 billion version. There was a deal for $85 billion. We're down to $15 billion now. But do you think there needs to be another stimulus, federal stimulus, like this? Is $15 billion enough?

Later, Moran described former Republican Senator Alan Simpson’s rejection of tax cuts as an effort “to get real.”

(Echoing Moran, on Wednesday night, though “many independent economists put the number of jobs saved or created at about 1.8 million,” CBS’s Chip Reid relayed that “to the great frustration of the White House, most Americans simply refuse to believe it. In a recent CBS News/New York Times poll, a mere 6 percent said the stimulus has created jobs.”)

Some of the questions from Moran, an anchor of Nightline in the running to take over This Week, to the two Governors:

> The Senate is taking up a jobs bill this week. $15 billion. When it started at the White House, it was $200 billion. The House passed $185 billion version. There was a deal for $85 billion. We're down to $15 billion now. But do you think there needs to be another stimulus, federal stimulus, like this? Is $15 billion enough?

> As Governor Schwarzenegger says, it’s politics, but it’s politics that gained traction and I want to ask you Governor Rendell: Big fanfare this week. The Obama administration fanned out across the country, “the stimulus worked.” The President made speeches, sounded a little frustrated that people don't get it, at least polls show, that they don't understand there were tax cuts and things like that. What did they do wrong? They're playing defense on what was one of their major accomplishments. What did the White House, the President do wrong in explaining, presenting and selling it?

> Very aggressive Republican positioning here and I want to go back to the CPAC conference. The Republicans reasserted their congressional power. Essentially, a massive campaign of obstruction, filibusters, more than 100 in one year, 80 percent of major legislation. And, as Mike Pence, Congressman from Indiana, one of the Republican conservative leaders in the House, put it at CPAC, they're proud of that record.

MIKE PENCE: Sometimes no is just what this town needs to hear. When it comes to more borrowing, the answer is no. When it comes to more spending, the answer is no. When it comes to more bailouts, the answer is no.

Governor Schwarzenegger, is the Republican party, your party, the party of no right now?

> The challenge of course they’re looking at, an ocean of red ink. One of the other things that happened in Washington, the President appointed a national commission on the debt. Alan Simpson, one of the co-chairs, did an interview with Judy Woodruff on PBS in which he tried to get real.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Some people, mainly Republicans right now, are arguing what's really needed are tax cuts.

ALAN SIMPSON: I'm not smoking that same pipe. Everything is on the table.

Everything is on the table. He's not smoking that pipe. Would each of you agree that you look at this ocean of red ink, Republican and a Democrat, get real, that to solve the fiscal disaster looming for the country, Republicans here in Washington are going to agree the government gets more revenue. The Democrats are going to have to agree long-term entitlements get cut.