Talk The Trash But Take The Cash

Republicans are eager to dump on the stimulus for "not creating a single job" and yet line up to take as much stimulus money as possible.  Today's hypocrite and liar?  Sen. Kit Bond.

In some circles, it's come to be known as the "cash-and-trash" strategy -- Republicans hate the stimulus package and "trash" it at every available opportunity, but love the stimulus package and grab the "cash" when it comes to creating jobs in their own states/districts. It's been going on for a year, but the phenomenon keeps spreading.

And becoming even more humiliating.

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.

"It's not illegal to talk out of both sides of your mouth, but it does seem to be a level of dishonesty troubling to the American public," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

This report is pretty astounding. More than a dozen GOP lawmakers who said the recovery package is simply incapable of creating jobs and generating economic growth pleaded with the Agriculture Department to spend stimulus dollars in their areas to "create jobs" and "spur economic opportunities." In several instances, far-right lawmakers would publicly condemn the very idea of economic stimulus efforts and request stimulus dollars within a few days of each other.

And it's getting worse. (More after the jump...)


My own Congressman, Geoff Davis of Kentucky, is equally slimy.  He attacked the stimulus mercilessly and then trumpted the school project those stimulus dollars paid for:

The latest member of the GOP caucus to engage in this hypocrisy is Rep. Geoff Davis (R-KY), who last week issued a press release trumpeting a stimulus-funded grant for a school district in his state.  "I am pleased that our office was able to assist them in obtaining these funds," Davis stated. 

And just this week, Davis was back bashing Obama.

Despite President Barack Obama's inaugural promise to create jobs and contain unemployment through a stimulus package that would "provide an immediate jolt" to our economy, Kentuckians have been struggling with an unemployment rate above 10 percent since May. Since the stimulus legislation was signed into law almost one year ago, 3.5 million Americans have lost their jobs. More than 6 million jobs have been lost since Democrats took control of Congress in January of 2007.

But that didn't stop Davis from talking trash and taking stimulus cash.  Every single one of the Republicans in the House voted against it, and are taking the money anyway, then saying the money's not working..  That includes Geoff Davis.