Politics

Republicans Hate The Stimulus But Love Stimulus Dollars

By Sunlight Foundation & Participatory Politics Foundation

It’s a common refrain from Republicans in the year since the $787 billion stimulus became law: trash it in public but accept or even beg for the money for their districts in private.

When the stimulus package (H.R.1) passed last year, only three Republicans voted for it: Sen. Olympia Snowe [R, ME], Sen. Susan Collins [R, ME], and Sen. Arlen Specter [D, PA]. At the time, Specter had yet to switch parties.

But as the Wall Street Journal reports, several GOP lawmakers who have called the stimulus a “wasteful spending spree” and “the socialist way,” among other things, have privately supported requests for stimulus dollars for their own districts:

More than a dozen Republican lawmakers supported stimulus-funding requests submitted to the Department of Labor, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Forest Service, in letters obtained by The Wall Street Journal through the Freedom of Information Act.

Some of these lawmakers include Rep. Paul Ryan [R, WI-1], Rep. Jean Schmidt [R, OH-2] and Sen. Richard Shelby [R, AL].

Democrats hope to make this an issue in the upcoming midterm elections. President Obama criticized Republicans for praising stimulus money while decrying the stimulus at his live Q&A session last month with the House GOP caucus and Rep. Nancy Pelosi [D, CA-8] is urging Congressional Democrats to tout the stimulus, which she calls ?a hallmark achievement of this Congress.?

This WSJ story comes on the heels of a Washington Times story pointing out out its own ?dirty dozen? GOP lawmakers for being stimulus hypocrites and after MSNBC host Rachel Maddow called out Rep. Aaron Schock [R, IL-18] along the same lines on Sunday’s Meet The Press:

[J]ust this week you were at a community college touting a $350,000 green technology education program, talking about how great that was going to be for your district. You voted against the bill that created that grant. And so that’s happening a lot with Republicans sort of taking credit for things that Democratic bills do, and then Republicans simultaneously touting their votes against them and trashing them. That’s, I think, a, a, a problem that needs to be resolved within, within your caucus, because, I mean, you seem like a very nice person, but that’s very hypocritical stance to take.

Watch the segment here:

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Full post as published by Open Congress on February 16, 2010 (boomark / email).