Campaign committees attack Gibson, Owens

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the National Republican Campaign Committee had some harsh words this week for the two men representing the North Country in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Let's start with Chris Gibson, the Republican from New York's 20th Congressional District. The DCCC issued what amounts to a report card on Gibson's first year in the House:

Today is the one year anniversary of Representative Chris Gibson’s (NY-20) Republican Congress of chronic chaos that nearly shutdown the government three times, tried to end Medicare, failed to create jobs, and blindly protected tax breaks for Big Oil and billionaires. With so much work to do to get the economy back on track and Americans back to work, Gibson is spending his one year anniversary on vacation — only working 6 days in all of January. In this first year for Gibson’s Republican Congress, their partisan extremism has protected the ultra wealthy at the expense of Medicare for seniors, tax cuts for the middle class, and creating jobs for American workers.

The report goes on to argue that the GOP controlled House failed to put forth a jobs plan, voted for tax increases on the middle class, voted to end Medicare on three different occasions, voted to protect Big Oil and tried to slash college aid.

DCCC spokesperson Jesse Ferguson said in a statement accompanying the release that "Gibson and House Republicans have spent this first year in chronic chaos — failing to protect the middle class or create jobs — and are now off on vacation rather than putting Americans back to work. Middle income New York families can’t afford another year of Representative Chris Gibson choosing to blindly protect tax breaks for Big Oil instead of protecting Medicare for seniors."

Now on to Democrat Bill Owens, who represents New York's 23rd Congressional District.

The NRCC has been calling on Owens to urge President Barack Obama to support the Keystone XL Pipeline project for a few weeks now. Today, the committee said that Owens "and his fellow Washington Democrats" have done little "to spark economic growth in their communities."

Jobs figures released today show the national unemployment rate at 8.5 percent.

"Bill Owens' party has continuously dumped job-crushing policies on small business owners and its affects are manifested in a stagnant economy,” NRCC Communications Director Paul Lindsay said in a press release. "Americans want to get back to work and projects like the Keystone XL pipeline will provide jobs for them, but Democrats in Washington are proving they are more interested in providing political payback than helping America's working families." According to Lindsay, the stalled decision on Keystone XL is leading to job losses, because hundreds of miles of pipe for the project are sitting idle.

"With the December unemployment rate at 8.5 percent, New York families cannot see any relief in sight as Bill Owens and his Washington leaders refuse to support small business owners," he added. "Bill Owens has remained unwavering in his commitment to an agenda that has stifled job growth and burdened his constituents with a crippling unemployment race.

It's worth noting that both Gibson and Owens support the Keystone project.