Republican Stimulus Hypocrisy: They Knew it Would Work

By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

According to this morning's exposé in the Washington Times, those very same Republican members of Congress who publicly condemned the 2009 stimulus bill--insisting to us all that it would neither stimulate the economy nor create jobs--privately believed just the opposite. These GOP representatives and senators were so sure that the stimulus bill would be effective, in fact, that they could not get to their desks fast enough to start peppering the federal government with requests for projects in their districts.

After using the Freedom of Information Act to acquire the congressional correspondence to just one federal agency--the Department of Agriculture--the Times discovered more than a dozen two-faced GOP members, including Rep. Joe "You Lie" Wilson, the South Carolina Republican who interrupted President Obama's speech to a joint session of Congress last year.

As the Times reported, Wilson voted against the stimulus but then "elbowed his way into the rush for federal stimulus cash" in a letter he sent to Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack.

"We know their endeavor will provide jobs and investment," Wilson said on behalf of some hometown candidates for stimulus funds.

Then there is Sen. Robert Bennett of Utah. Not a bad guy. But he also assured us that the stimulus bill was awful, then wrote to Vilsack with a list of home state projects seeking stimulus cash. Like Wilson, Bennett was pretty sure that the stimulus would do what the Obama administration said it would. Which is no big surprise, considering that almost every economist with a brain on the planet endorses counter-cyclical stimulus plans to ease recessions and ward off depressions.

As the Times reported:

"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.

There is nothing new in this kind of hypocrisy. Since Yorktown, American politicians have been complaining in public about waste and spending, while scheming in private to bring home the bacon.

And you know who encourages them? We, the people. We hail the politicians and their brave talk about reducing the role of government, then nod with piggy approval when the local newspaper prints their picture at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for some Bridge to Nowhere.

That is politics. But if we are really serious about changing things, if the debt this time is truly scary, then this is the kind of behavior that has to stop--in both political parties.

So, kudos to the Washington Times for not being an apologist for the GOP, and for the guts it took to cut against the partisan grain. Let's hope that Fox News and the tea baggers will see the light and do the same.

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