assassins seems to lead to israeli. suspects named by police say the real killers stole their identities. and in florida a haitian musician finds the keys to recovery from the earthquake, and he has a motown legend to thank. let s do this. let s get started. the $862 billion stimulus plan one year later, a boon to the economy or a bust? critics say it has been a huge waste of money, but president obama has said it saved jobs and prevent an even deeper recession. white house correspondent, dan la lothian is here with us now, boil it down. what is the message from the president today? p reporter: what you heard was two things. first of all, the president was trying to make it clear to the american people that the stimulus did work and is working. and secondly, he was speaking directly to his critics that they simply got it wrong. you heard the president give the one example how there are people out there saying that stimulus simply doesn t work, politicians saying it doesn t work.
the republicans who have done this and posting pictures of them handing out giant checks touting funds they voted against. even the president has called out republicans for attending ribbon cuttings for stimulus-funded projects that they voted against. the white house has put some of the documentation of republican hypocrisy on this in writing. none of this is a secret, which is the most important thing to understand about it. republicans right now do not care about policy. by which i mean, they will not vote for things that even they admit are good policies. on policy terms, they have been caught bragging on the stimulus as good policy. i have no doubt that some of them think that health reform is good policy. we know they think things like a deficit commission or cap and trade or paygo are good policy because they re on the record supporting them. but they re not going to vote for them because screw policy. screw what even they believe is good for the country.
of them handing out the giant che checks. even the president has called out republicans for attending ribbon cuttings for stimulus-funded projects that they voted against. the white house has put some of the documentation of republican hip ok r hypocrisy on this in writing. none of this is a secret, which is the most important thing to understand about it. republicans right now do not care about policy, by which i mean they will not vote for things that even they admit are good policies. on policy terms they have been caught bragging on the stimulus as good policy. i have no doubt that some of them think that health reform is good policy, we know they think that things like cap and trade are good policy because they re on the record supporting them. but they re not going to vote for them because, screw policy, screw what even they believe is good for the country. screw what they believe is even good for their own districts.
what happened? now, it s one thing to have an honest difference of opinion on something. there s nothing wrong with that. you can t walk away from your responsibilities to confront the challenges facing the country because you don t think it s good short term politics. we can t afford that. mr. obama teed up republicans on the stimulus package today as well, another subject on which republicans have been trying to stay on the offense, president obama again no longer letting them. so the very same folks in congress who opposed the recovery act and claimed that it hasn t worked have been all too happy to claim credit for recovery act projects, and the jobs those projects have produced. they come to the ribbon cuttings and they found a way to have their cake and vote against it too. on the issue of health
hasn t worked have been all too happy to claim credit for recovery act projects and the jobs those projects have produced. they come to the ribbon cuttings and they found a way to have their cake and vote against it too. all right. all this coming as a new daily coast poll shows 63% of self-described republicans believe obama is a socialist. 39% believe he should be impeached. 36% believe he was born overseas. and one in five believe the community organizing group a.c.o.r.n. stole the presidential election. despite widespread criticism today in so we don t have to live next to them, 21%. moving on to another subject you ll love, barnicle, today the insurance giant aig set to hand out roughly $100 million in employee bonuses. that money is heading to financial workers in the same risky unit where financial trades almost sank the company last year, if not for the