Hernandez Moved Back To San Joaquin Valley After Less Than A Decade As An Astronaut In Houston

Hernandez Relocated To Texas In 2004 For An Astronaut Job After Living Most Of His Life In The San Joaquin Valley. From The Record: “A resident of Houston, Hernandez considers Stockton his home. He is a graduate of Franklin High School and of University of the Pacific’s electrical-engineering program. He spent most of his life in San Joaquin County. In 2004, he relocated to Texas after accepting a position with NASA. Growing up, he also lived in Tracy and Modesto with his migrant farm worker parents who now live in Lodi. ‘I think it would be hard to call me a carpetbagger,’ Hernandez said. ‘I have lived in all parts of the Valley. My roots are deeply imbedded in San Joaquin Valley.’” [The Record, 6/24/11]

Tax Lien Was Lifted Before Hernandez Declared His Candidacy

Hernandez’ Wife Ran Restaurant While He Was Working For NASA. From the Associated Press: “[Hernandez] moved to Houston in 2001 to work at Johnson Space Center as an engineer, working his way up to branch chief. He was selected as an astronaut in 2004, after 12 years of trying. […] Wife Adela runs a Mexican restaurant just outside the Johnson gates, aptly called Tierra Luna Grill, Spanish for Earth Moon Grill.” [Associated Press via MSN.com, 8/24/09]

Hernandez Paid Owed Taxes And Tax Lien Was Lifted In August 2011. From the Modesto Bee: “Records do indicate that the IRS imposed a lien on Tierra Luna in 2010 for $10,813 in unpaid federal taxes; this amount was paid off and the lien lifted in August, a month before Hernandez announced he was considering running.” [Modesto Bee, 4/22/12]

As Of April 2012, Hernandez’ Opponent, Jeff Denham, Owed Over $6,000 In Unpaid Property Taxes. From McClatchy: “[Rep. Jeff] Denham owed Merced County $6,051 in unpaid taxes, including penalties, as of last week, county records show. The taxes cover property at Longview Avenue in Atwater, Calif.” [McClatchy, 4/18/12]

In April 2012, Hernandez Owed $484, Likely Because He Never Received The Final Bill. From McClatchy: “Hernandez, meanwhile, owed $484 in Harris County, Texas, for past taxes on a family restaurant that has since closed. […] Hernandez’s campaign manager Dan Krupnick was explaining by telephone that Hernandez had never received the final Harris County bill. The Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector’s website showed that the bill was marked ‘returned undeliverable.’” [McClatchy, 4/18/12]

Recovery Act Created Millions Of Jobs, Boosted GDP, And Cut Taxes

Recovery Act “Succeeded In…Protecting The Economy During The Worst Of The Recession.” From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: “A new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report estimates that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) increased the number of people employed by between 200,000 and 1.5 million jobs in March. In other words, between 200,000 and 1.5 million people employed in March owed their jobs to the Recovery Act. […] ARRA succeeded in its primary goal of protecting the economy during the worst of the recession. The CBO report finds that ARRA’s impact on jobs peaked in the third quarter of 2010, when up to 3.6 million people owed their jobs to the Recovery Act. Since then, the Act’s job impact has gradually declined as the economy recovers and certain provisions expire.” [CBPP.org, 5/29/12]

At Its Peak, Recovery Act Was Responsible For Up To 3.6 Million Jobs. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office:

CBO estimates that ARRAs [sic] policies had the following effects in the third quarter of calendar year 2010:

• They raised real (inflation-adjusted) gross domestic product by between 1.4 percent and 4.1 percent,
• Lowered the unemployment rate by between 0.8 percentage points and 2.0 percentage points,
• Increased the number of people employed by between 1.4 million and 3.6 million, and
• Increased the number of full-time-equivalent (FTE) jobs by 2.0 million to 5.2 million compared with what would have occurred otherwise. (Increases in FTE jobs include shifts from part-time to full-time work or overtime and are thus generally larger than increases in the number of employed workers). [CBO.gov, 11/24/10]

Recovery Act Included $288 Billion In Tax Cuts. From PolitiFact: “Nearly a third of the cost of the stimulus, $288 billion, comes via tax breaks to individuals and businesses. The tax cuts include a refundable credit of up to $400 per individual and $800 for married couples; a temporary increase of the earned income tax credit for disadvantaged families; and an extension of a program that allows businesses to recover the costs of capital expenditures faster than usual. The tax cuts aren’t so much spending as money the government won’t get — so it can stay in the economy.” [PolitiFact.com, 2/17/10]

Hernandez Qualified His Support For Government Stimulus

Hernandez Was Not In Congress When The Stimulus Was Passed. According to the San Franscisco Chronicle, the 2012 race is Hernandez’ first time as a candidate. [San Francisco Chronicle, 3/30/12]

Hernandez Agreed With 2009 Stimulus But Also Said That “We Can’t Just Rely On The Government To Supply The Stimulus.” From the San Franscisco Chronicle politics blog post cited by AAN: “On disagreeing with Obama: Though he agreed with the 2009 federal stimulus package and the President’s new jobs plan, ‘We can’t just rely on the government to supply the stimulus.’  We need to be more aggressive in supplying incentives to businesses so they can free up some of their capital.” [SFGate.com, 10/11/11]

Affordable Care Act Savings Do Not ‘Cut’ Medicare Benefits

Affordable Care Act Reduces Future Medicare Spending, But “Does Not Cut That Money From The Program.” According to PolitiFact: “The legislation aims to slow projected spending on Medicare by more than $500 billion over a 10-year period, but it does not cut that money from the program. Medicare spending will increase over that time frame.”  [PolitiFact.com, 6/28/12]

• CBO’s July Estimate Updates Medicare Cost Savings To $716 Billion. According to the Congressional Budget Office’s analysis of a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, repeal would have the following effects on Medicare spending: “Spending for Medicare would increase by an estimated $716 billion over that 2013–2022 period. Federal spending for Medicaid and CHIP would  increase by about $25 billion from repealing the noncoverage provisions of the ACA, and direct spending for other programs would decrease by about $30 billion, CBO estimates. Within Medicare, net increases in spending for the services covered by Part A (Hospital Insurance) and Part B (Medical Insurance) would total $517 billion and $247 billion, respectively. Those increases would be partially offset by a $48 billion reduction in net spending for Part D.” [CBO.gov, 8/13/12]

GOP Plan Kept Most Of The Savings In The Affordable Care Act. According to the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler: “First of all, under the health care bill, Medicare spending continues to go up year after year. The health care bill tries to identify ways to save money, and so the $500 billion figure comes from the difference over 10 years between anticipated Medicare spending (what is known as ‘the baseline’) and the changes the law makes to reduce spending. […] The savings actually are wrung from health-care providers, not Medicare beneficiaries. These spending reductions presumably would be a good thing, since virtually everyone agrees that Medicare spending is out of control. In the House Republican budget, lawmakers repealed the Obama health care law but retained all but $10 billion of the nearly  $500 billion in Medicare savings, suggesting the actual policies enacted to achieve these spending reductions were not that objectionable to GOP lawmakers.” [WashingtonPost.com, 6/15/11, emphasis added]

• Rep. Denham Voted To Keep The ACA’s Medicare Savings. Along with 234 other House Republicans, Rep. Denham voted “yea” on the House Republican budget. [H.Con. Res. 34, Vote #277, 4/15/11]