DNC chairman: Dems have helped the economy ‘turn a corner’

by J. Taylor Rushing - 09/05/10 2:15 PM ET

Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine said Democratic
candidates should be proud to run on the party’s economic record this
fall, brushing aside concerns that both chambers of Congress could fall
to Republican control.

Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” the former Virginia governor said the
Obama administration has helped the U.S. economy “turn the corner”
after nearly a decade of irresponsible fiscal policies, pointing to
statistics that show the country’s GDP numbers are growing.

“After nearly 20 months in a row of private-sector job losses,
we’ve gained jobs in the private sector for eight months in a row,”
Kaine told Fox News host Chris Wallace. “There were some net losses
over the summer because the Census [jobs] phased out. But we have the
private sector growing again… We’ve had a net turnaround from
negative to positive. It’s clear that we have a long way to go, but
we’ve just got to keep at this. We are climbing out of the ditch.”

Kaine confirmed reports that President Obama plans to announce a
package of stimulus legislation this week, and pointed to a bill to
boost small businesses that has stalled in the Senate as proof that
Democrats are trying to overcome GOP obstruction to jump-start the
economy. The bill would increase lending options for small businesses
and cut their capital gains taxes.

Kaine disputed any notion that Obama’s push for tax cuts for
businesses was a political “deathbed conversion,” coming just two
months before the November elections, noting that the president has
included tax cuts in numerous pieces of legislation that he has pushed
over the past year and a half.

Tags Tim Kaine