Two-faced Republicans Ask for Stimulus at Same Time That They Bad-Mouth It To Voters

Journalists Alison Fitzgerald and Justin Blum of Bloomberg have what could be an eye-opening story to Republican voters.  The same Republican Congressmen who have been bad-mouthing the stimulus plan for not creating or saving jobs have tried multiple times to get stimulus funded transportation grants directed to their state.  Jo Bonner and Robert Aderholt (both Republicans from Alabama) wrote Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood multiple times (5+ times) for stimulus funded grants on the basis that it would create thousands of jobs for their state.

Bonner and Aderholt joined more than 100 Republican Congressmen who after voting against the stimulus bill, wrote U.S. Transportation Secretary Lahood asking for part of the money for $1.5 billion that same stimulus plan reserved for local road, rail, bridge, and transit grants.  The money for those grants the Republicans asked for was part of the same $862 billion Recovery Act passed in 2009 with zero Republican votes in the house, and only 3 Republican votes in the Senate.

And this I quote directly word-for-word from Fitzgerald and Blum's story:

"Obama, during a Feb. 19 speech to the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, said congressional critics are calling the stimulus a “boondoggle” while “making appearances at ribbon-cuttings” for local projects financed by the bill. “They’re trying to vote against their cake and eat it, too,” he said."

This also I quote word-for-word from Fitzgerald and Blum's story:

"The National Republican Congressional Committee, led by Texas Representative Pete Sessions, released a video montage of clips edited to show a series of news anchors and commentators asking “Where are the jobs?”

Sessions, who called the stimulus “a massive spending binge by the Democrat-controlled Congress,” wrote LaHood three times last September and October. Sessions promoted four projects, including a Dallas streetcar line he said “will create jobs in the region and improve the quality of life for North Texans.” The project got $23 million." Sessions, in an e-mail, called the stimulus an “abject failure” and said he’d vote against it again if he could."

Fitzgerald and Blum list others who bad-mouthed the stimulus package at the same time they wrote Transporation Secretary Lahood asking for more from the same package:

• Indiana Republican Steve Buyer sought $80 million
• North Carolina Representative Heath Shuler (a Republican) requested stimulus money(Interstate Highway Project for 900 jobs)
• Alabama Representative Parker Griffith (since changed to Republican) wrote for money for railway construction
• South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham wrote Lahood asking for $360 million of Stimulus money for Interstate 73 around Myrtle Beach (one of 12 requests by Senator Graham for stimulus money).
• Oklahoma Republican Tom Cole called it a "recipe for disaster" then subsequently asked for a 2,700 acre industrial park in Ardmore, Oklahoma that he claimed might create 30,000 new jobs.
• Texas Republican Representative Kay Granger wrote for assistance (stimulus) for 6 projects including a toll-road for the Dallas-Fort Worth Metro area she said would create roughly 3,500 jobs for the area.  On the stimulus anniversary Granger said the stimulus was "government waste at its worst".  She should know.

We should thank the two Bloomberg writers for revealing these Republican two-faced liars for what they are.  Again you can read their article here.
Hat tip to Menzie Chinn at Econbrowser blog for this.