A recent survey in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found that 69% of staff economists believe the stimulus has had “no impact on employment to date.”

Even Democratic Senator Evan Bayh, who announced his retirement this week, said “If I could create one job in the private sector by helping grow a business, that would be one more than Congress has created in the past six months.”

The stimulus has been an unmitigated disaster, plunging us deeper in debt but doing nothing to help our economy recover.

Today I’m asking you to join me in fighting back.

We’re hosting a “moneybomb” today at www.obeystimulus.com, to educate voters about Chairman Obey, Congress’ biggest spender, and the stimulus bill that he wrote.

We’ll also be chatting live right here at 1 p.m. CST.  I hope you can join us! Leave your questions for me in the comments below.

Let’s roll,

Sean

Today, that spirit returns to Northwestern Wisconsin as we launch a one-day blitz to build momentum for our campaign for new leadership to replace Dave Obey.

Please go to StrikeaBlowforFreedom.com and contribute what you can to our moneybomb to retire Dave Obey. Even if it’s just $12.16, or $20, every bit counts and shows that people power beats the power of the chairman of the Appropriations Committee.

I also look forward to calling 5 people who donate today to thank them personally.

If you’ve already given today — thank you! Can you please forward this email to 10 of your friends and ask them to join us?

We are going to win next year because we’ll offer a strong new direction, with the power of all the people tired of the spending and waste from Washington.

On December 16, 1773, a group of Americans who had had enough of a government that didn’t represent them gathered at Boston Harbor and lit the fuse of the Revolution.

Today, these patriots are the inspiration for millions of Americans fighting for their freedom.  The modern Tea Party movement was ignited by the failed $787 billion stimulus package.  The author of that stimulus bill was Dave Obey, the chairman of Appropriations and a member of Congress for 40 years too long.

I am running to permanently retire Dave Obey and end his reign as the king of the spending machine, but I can’t do it alone. This Wednesday, the 236th anniversary of the original Boston Tea Party, I’m asking as many Americans as possible to join me in sending a message to the father of the failed stimulus by contributing whatever they can to retire him in a nationwide moneybomb at StrikeaBlowforFreedom.com.  Can you help us?

What began with the stimulus bill is fast turning into a nationwide revolt against the arrogance and reckless spending of Washington, D.C.  Here in Wisconsin’s 7th district, we are poised to make history in a swing district closely divided between Democrats and Republicans, against Dave Obey — the one who started it all.

With a serious challenger for the first time in his long career, Dave Obey is acting nervous.  Lately, he’s made news by lashing out at the White House for the phony jobs numbers reported in fake Congressional districts on Recovery.gov.

But here’s what Obey isn’t telling you.

In an interview last February, Obey was asked about this lack of accountability and oversight in his stimulus bill. Here was his response:

“So what? This is an emergency. We’ve got to simply find a way to get this done as fast as possible and as well as possible, and that’s what we’re doing.”

That doesn’t mean Congress will be responsible if the money is spent badly, he says.

“The person who spends the money badly will be responsible. We are simply trying to build as many protections in as possible,” Obey says. “We have more oversight built into this package than any package in the history of man. If money is spent badly, we want to know about it so we can hold accountable the people who made that choice. And guess what? Regardless of what we do, there will be some stupid decisions made.”

Dave Obey is right about one thing: Stupid decisions have been made. And it’s time Obey was held accountable as the father of the failed stimulus.

And now we’re talking about even more spending to get us out of the hole Obey got us into.

Over the weekend, Congress approved another $1.1 trillion “omnibus” spending bill packed with over 5,000 earmarks, coupled with a debt ceiling increase of an unprecedented $1.8 trillion. Once again, that omnibus bill was shepherded through the House by none other than Dave Obey.

And underscoring the failure of Obey’s original stimulus as unemployment hovers at 10%, the Administration is talking about raiding bailout money for another stimulus bill.

It’s time for the madness to end.

Two hundred and thirty six years ago Wednesday, American patriots said “Enough is enough.”

This Wednesday — and each of the 321 days left from then until Election Day 2010 — is our chance to reclaim the country we love from the avalanche of spending and debt being piled up by Dave Obey and Nancy Pelosi.

As someone who’s mounting a serious challenge to one of the most powerful members of Congress, it’s safe to say I won’t be seeing much support from the folks in Washington who benefit from all this new spending. That means that I need to rely on everyday American patriots to fuel our campaign.

Our strength will be in the number of people we can get to make a stand to retire Dave Obey. I’d rather have 5,000 people standing with me than Washington PACs who can write $5,000 checks. Wherever you are, surely retiring the king of Appropriations is worth $12.16 in honor of the patriots who started a Revolution?

Let’s go. Thank you, and God bless.

Sean Duffy seems like an excellent candidate in a swing seat. That’s right – the seat held by Obey leans only marginally toward the Democrats. Duffy is the sort of bright, young candidate who can give America’s spender-in-chief a serious challenge.

Today, I’m announcing that I’m a candidate for Congress in Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional district. I’m challenging Congress’s leading spender, David Obey. We have a chance to make history in the 7th in 2010, but I can only do it with your help. I hope you’ll start by joining our team at DuffyforCongress.com.

First, I’d like to tell you a little bit about myself.

For the last seven years, I’ve been the District Attorney of Ashland County, and I’m proud of my over 90 percent trial success rate. I was raised in Hayward. Rachel and I are proud to be raising our five kids in Northern Wisconsin – because there’s no better place to raise a family than in the great state of Wisconsin.

I’m running for Congress because I think it’s time for new voices and new leadership in Washington. For more than 200 years our country has prospered under the philosophy that the individual – not the government – is the engine of American prosperity. That small businesses and dedicated workers – not government agencies and bureaucrats – generate economic growth and wealth. And yet, in response to the current financial crisis, our leaders in Washington have put their faith, not in the American people, but in the government. My speech to an April 15th Tea Party in Madison sums up my commitment to fiscal responsibility:

Under the direction of politicians like David Obey, our government is doing things our founding fathers never intended for it to do. For the first time in our country’s history, the federal government is taking over private companies like GM and AIG and putting bureaucrats in charge of business decisions.

Last February, Members of Congress voted to spend almost $800 billion of our money in a stimulus bill that many of them didn’t even read – and how could they? They had less than 24 hours to read over 1000 pages of legislation. But David Obey did read the bill. Not only did he read the bill – he wrote the bill. That’s right, he is the author of that pork-filled stimulus package.

Of course, Washington tells us that the stimulus, the bailouts and budget increases are temporary, “emergency” spending. That once the economy recovers, we’ll go on a financial diet. But I’ve never heard of a government program that retired itself, or a bureaucrat that said, “Well, we’ve accomplished our goal – thanks, taxpayers – now we’re going home.” Have you? They will only shut their doors when we send representatives to Washington who will do it for them!

It’s time to bring fiscal sanity to Washington, and the only way that’s going to happen is for hard-working people, people who know what it’s like to balance a family budget, to decide it’s time for a change. I’m one of those people. That’s why I’m running for Congress, and that’s why I need your support.

Please share your thoughts with me in the comments. I look forward to coming back here, reading them all, and weighing in. And don’t forget to join the conversation on our blog at DuffyforCongress.com, or follow me (@Duffy4Congress) on Twitter. I look forward to working with you to retire David Obey and bring real change to the 7th district.