Angle: Just say no

Friday, July 9, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.

Last year, as workers closed in on finishing CityCenter, MGM Resorts International CEO Jim Murren said the massive project was on the verge of bankruptcy. That put tens of thousands of jobs in jeopardy and threatened an already stumbling local economy.

Murren was trying to get financing to push the project forward, but banks were resistant because of the tight credit market. So Murren went to Nevada’s congressional delegation for help, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made some calls, asking big banks to consider the project because bankruptcy would be catastrophic to the state’s economy. The banks, in turn, worked with CityCenter to provide funding, and the resort opened in December.

That’s impressive work for a senator, but not to Republican Sharron Angle, Reid’s challenger. During an interview Wednesday on a conservative talk radio show, a caller asked Angle about Reid and CityCenter. “Harry Reid brags all the time about the jobs he saved in CityCenter,” the caller said. “Would you have made that same call? Would you have saved CityCenter?”

“No, I would not,” Angle said. “You know the reason is because he may have saved jobs in

CityCenter, but he actually cost jobs in other parts of the city. And you know that as well as I do. The issue here becomes bailouts, right? And stimulus. We want something that is not going to bail out and stimulate, what we want is deregulate, lower taxes, give businesses some breathing room to do what they do best, which is create jobs ... What we really need is real jobs, permanent, full-time jobs with a future. And that can only be provided by the private sector; government does not provide jobs.”

Angle’s stunning statement shows how far out of touch she is with reality. MGM Resorts issued a statement calling Angle’s comments “ridiculous,” adding that Reid “saved not only 10,000 construction jobs and 12,000 permanent private-sector jobs at CityCenter but the jobs of 50,000 employees at our other resorts that would have been jeopardized had our company followed CityCenter into bankruptcy.”

But Angle’s comments are more than ridiculous, they are factually wrong. There was no stimulus or bailout. There were no jobs lost in other parts of the city because of Reid’s action. Government didn’t create any jobs, MGM Resorts — the state’s largest private employer — did, and the jobs are “real.”

But Angle says a senator’s role isn’t to create jobs and apparently doesn’t think a senator should help workers or businesses. Had she been in the Senate instead of Reid, tens of thousands of jobs would have been lost.

Angle just doesn’t get it. What Reid did was exactly what anyone should want a senator to do. He went to bat for a local business and for Nevada’s workers. Angle has shown a cold heart toward workers and their families, preferring instead to stick to her narrow anti-government ideology. For example, Angle this week criticized the White House for pushing BP to create a $20 billion escrow account as part of its response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. “Government shouldn’t be doing that to a private company,” she said, calling the account a “slush fund.”

Tell that to the Gulf Coast residents who have lost their livelihoods because of the spill. The fund, overseen by an independent administrator, will compensate them for their lost income.

Since she won the primary, Angle’s handlers in Washington have tried to keep the candidate hidden and tried to make her views appear less radical. They have also tried desperately to blunt the damage as her views come to light. On Thursday, Angle issued a statement about her BP comment, saying there had been “confusion” over her position, adding that her use of the term “slush fund” was “incorrect.”

There has been no confusion. She said what she meant: The government was wrong to help victims of BP’s oil spill — just like she believes Reid was wrong to help tens of thousands of Las Vegans keep their jobs. Those go along with all of her other extreme comments, like equating Social Security with “welfare” or saying that unemployment has “spoiled” people.

There is no hiding that Angle, despite efforts to gloss over her comments, has been very clear. And the scary part is that she believes what she says.