Remember the $787 billion spending behemoth passed by Congress last year to supposedly prop our nation up and slide us like a greased pig through the recession?
Democrats more or less called the stimulus a necessary evil. Republicans screamed their heads off about how it would bankrupt the country and that the Four Horsemen would be galloping toward Capitol Hill as soon as it passed.
It was the perfect political nut-kicker for Republicans to employ
against their Democratic foes this fall. The party ripped apart Dems who
supported it, and rebranded "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act" as
"Obama's failed stimulus." But it turns out many Republicans that voted
against it, were actually begging for stimulus cash to be sent to their
states once the bill passed. Wha?? It's true.
A study released this week by the Center
for Public Integrity (great timing, guys!) documents how Republicans across the nation whined about the financial package
only to quietly send gushing letters in support of local funding
requests to various federal agencies.
Let's take a look at local politicians' breathtaking hypocrisy.
Retiring Sen. Kit Bond sent out a press release in February 2009 saying, "Hold on to your wallets, folks, because with the
passage of this
trillion-dollar baby the Democrats will be poised to spend as much as $3
trillion in your tax dollars." Turns out, he was more than happy to help spend. He talked tough until July 2009, when he petitioned
Department of Energy to fund a lead processing facility. A month later, he
was asked the transportation department for $200 million
for truck-only lanes on I-70. Must be some nice lanes.
Sam Brownback, the outgoing senator who will soon be the governor of
Kansas, once called the stimulus a "grab-bag spending bill." And he
tried to get Kansas part of the goodies by asking the Office of
Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (who knew such a thing
existed?) to support a grant for a smart grid project. He also wanted
the transportation department to fund freight rail between Kansas and
Oklahoma, saying it will provide a "rapid stimulus effect."
Kansas Rep. Todd Tiahrt called for the stimulus to be repealed
earlier this year. He put a doom and gloom chart
(with the president's sad face comically superimposed on the
background) on his House website earlier this year that attempted to
draw a connection between the stimulus and job losses. But Tiahrt (along
with all of the state's representatives and both senators) supported
the Kansas Farm Bureau's request for money to build rural broadband
infrastructure.
These all sound like worthwhile projects that will benefit constituents immensely, and it really sucks politicians have to play games like opposing them before they can support them. These guys aren't alone, either. There are tons of examples of people who voted against the stimulus then tried to get their hands on the money. Take a look here.
So who comes out of Stimu-gate looking good? Oddly,
it's Roy Blunt. As recently as last week, Blunt was slamming his senate
race opponent Robin Carnahan for having the audacity to have a brother
whose business received stimulus money, and he called it "a huge waste of money." Unlike his party comrades, though, he appears to truly believe that. In the mountains of paperwork the
journalists working on the study read through, they didn't find a single
letter from Blunt trying to divert cash back home. Maybe Missouri just had lousy grant requests?
Showing 1-12 of 12
This should be no surprise and there are many more who asked for money to "create jobs in their state" altho they say out of the other side of their mouths it did not create jobs. This stimulus was full of pork right from the get-go and loaded up with pet projects.
The stimulus was to get people working so to deny that it didn't is the big lie.
deny it? i ignore your attempts, your NEED to label me, whats the point? talk about the issue..you want to dis credit ideas with your political profiling, it's a bit ironic-
I guess you should ask yourself why labelling the person is so important to you? perhaps you just feel uncomfortable when you your talking points are not easy to see!
have a nice day!
it seems your just not interested in discussing ideas
Quite the contrary - I'm very interested in discussing ideas. When you teabaggers come up with some worth discussing, be sure to let me know.
BTW, it wasn't "Anonymous" who labeled you as a teabagger. That would be me. I notice you're not denying it.
amazing.. personal, yet "anonymous" attacks- labeling me "stupid" and a "teabagger" it seems your just not interested in discussing ideas but attacking me? strange..
I was looking for discussion, but you seem threatened by ideas- you wanna play bully
have a nice day!
smokingplatypus says:
where are the "shovel ready" projects and WHY should any lawmaker deny his/her state the ill gotten funds?
----
They shouldnt take the money because they claim to be principled conservatives who stand for not putting our children's future in debt. No wait actually they only pay lip service to people like you stupid enough to believe that they actually mean what they say.
i stay away from the home team mentality of the two party system
Sure you do. I'll bet you're also a "former Democrat" who didn't leave the party, the party left you.
Could you teabaggers be a little less obvious, please?
so, where did the money go? what WAS it spent on? should the ones who stood against the money not use it? REALLY? that seems silly..
i stay away from the home team mentality of the two party system..
interesting that on this day this blog shys away from the firing of Juan Williams by NPR during the fundraising week of NPR, was that a coincidence? how can Juan be fired but Nina Totenberg remain?
NPR has opinions, so does FOX- no one should rely on either for news, always get more sources- depending on one network is rather lazy.
where are the "shovel ready" projects and WHY should any lawmaker deny his/her state the ill gotten funds?
so i guess they should have refused to spend the money? instead allow all the wonderful "shovel ready" projects to start? perhaps, since the money was available they wanted to bring it their districts/states? i am past home team mentality of the two party system, as usual the "politics" of this blog isnt about discussion but rather a pointed weapon at conservatives, why? why not instead report what both the conservatives and democrates spent the ill-gotten money on? that would be interesting.. how about asking why NPR fired Juan Williams for his opinions but keeps Nina Totenberg? its easy to throw darts at conservatives or democrats, but where is the independent thought? considering Juan Williams.. it is NO coincidence that it is fundraising week at NPR, they -like FOX have opinions but they act as though they have a code..oh well, goodnight..
Hey, Blunt only comes out well because Bond did his dirty work. He was caught taking credit for bringing home the pork for stimulus projects he opposed.
"February 17, 2010: Blunt Took Tour of and Praises Brownfields Project Funded by Stimulus. On February 17, Blunt took a tour of the Brownfields program with Karl Brooks, the new Regional Administrator for the EPA�s Regional Office in Kansas City. [Springfield News Leader, 2/17/10; Springfield Brownfield Program]
� July 1, 2009: Blunt Attended Groundbreaking for and Praised New Visitors Center: In July 2009, Congressman Blunt attended the groundbreaking for the stimulus-funded visitors� center which he called �a wonderful day for Newton County.� �Think about the generations of kids that will come to this facility; they will learn more here than they could from any indoor classroom.� said Congressman Blunt. [Release, 7/1/10]
They have reduced politics to bumper stickers completely devoid of facts and all sense of rational discussion.
And there's the crux of the matter that, at least to my eyes, was missing from the article above.
Anyone who saw the Tea Partier on Bill Maher's show last week saw that they have no legitimate response (you know, one based on facts) to what spending they would actually cut. She went from very articulate to very tongue-tied anytime she had to present or defend any real data. She also went deer-in-the-headlights when informed that about 1/3 of the stimulus cost...was TAX CUTS.
But whatever - freedom socialism values take our country back is easier to digest.
Well it seems the whole point of the article was that the GOP is talking out of both sides of their mouths. The Tea party folks only seem to hear the part about how terrible the stimulus is/was. Then again, this is probably due in part to the fact that the Tea Party Network, ie FOX News, doesn't report news, it only reports what fits their narrative of big business good, Democrats bad. They have reduced politics to bumper stickers completely devoid of facts and all sense of rational discussion.
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