Hate the stimulus? You lie!
Congressman Joe Wilson hates the stimulus package. So does Kit Bond. They think it’s wasteful, wasteful, wasteful good, gooooood…
Sen. Christopher S. Bond regularly railed against President Obama’s economic stimulus plan as irresponsible spending that would drive up the national debt. But behind the scenes, the Missouri Republican quietly sought more than $50 million from a federal agency for two projects in his state.
Mr. Bond was not alone. More than a dozen Republican lawmakers, while denouncing the stimulus to the media and their constituents, privately sent letters to just one of the federal government’s many agencies seeking stimulus money for home-state pork projects.
The letters to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, expose the gulf between lawmakers’ public criticism of the overall stimulus package and their private lobbying for projects close to home.
As to Mr. Wilson:
Rep. Joe Wilson, South Carolina Republican who became famous after yelling, “You lie,” during Mr. Obama’s addresses to Congress in September, voted against the stimulus. Nonetheless, Mr. Wilson elbowed his way into the rush for federal stimulus cash in a letter he sent to Mr. Vilsack on behalf of a foundation seeking funding.
“We know their endeavor will provide jobs and investment in one of the poorer sections of the Congressional District,” he wrote to Mr. Vilsack in the Aug. 26, 2009, letter.
“Congressman Wilson’s position on the stimulus bill is consistent,” said spokeswoman Pepper Pennington. She said Mr. Wilson opposed the stimulus as a “misguided spending bill,” but once it passed, he wanted to make sure South Carolina residents “receive their share of the pie.”
On Feb. 13, 2009, Sen. Robert F. Bennett, Utah Republican, issued a statement criticizing the stimulus — but two days earlier, he privately forwarded to Mr. Vilsack a list of projects seeking stimulus money.
“I believe the addition of federal funds to these projects would maximize the stimulative effect of these projects on the local economy,” he wrote.
Other porkpies: Rep. Pat Tiberi, Ohio Republican; Sen. Mike Johanns, Nebraska Republican; (who “told the Grand Island, Neb., Independent newspaper that ‘it would be hard for me to imagine that we are going to be creating many jobs here.’ Yet he saw the prospect of at least a few dozen jobs in a letter he later sent to Mr. Vilsack for a home-state project, records show. ‘The proposed project would create 38 new jobs and bring broadband to eight hospitals, five colleges, 16 libraries and 161 K-12 schools,’ Mr. Johanns wrote…”; Sen. Lamar Alexander, Tennessee Republican; Rep. John Linder, Georgia Republican; Rep. Robert B. Aderholt, Alabama Republican; Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Alaska Republican; and of course, Chuck Grassley.
Read the whole sorry tale here. Let’s hope the DNC, DSCC and DCCC have their ad buys ready.
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