Stimulating Republican Dishonesty

by Meteor Blades

Wed Feb 17, 2010 at 02:22:04 PM PST

The media - traditional and in wwwLand - are brimful of stimulus stories today. We’ve had our share here and here as the Democrats, led by President Obama, have successfully worked to dominate the narrative-of-the-day on this anniversary of the signing of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. It’s the bully-pulpit at its most effective.

If only this had been the approach initiated sometime around last March and relentlessly pounded home once or twice a week ever since, at least some of the drop-off in support for Democrats as measured by the polls might not have occurred. And perhaps there wouldn’t be so much resistance to passing even the utterly inadequate jobs bill now working its way through Congress. But past is past. We can only hope the party learns from this messaging lesson when it comes to future legislation.

As expected, there has been plenty of pushback, with the lead editorial  of the Wall Street Journal essentially making the same argument that right-wingers made about the New Deal: If you’d only left things alone they would have gotten better on their own. Elected Republicans went down their usual path, arguing that the stimulus didn’t work because unemployment is still high.

It’s true, joblessness is still grim, and there is every reason to believe that it will remain so, probably for years. But that doesn’t argue against the stimulus - which impartial analyses show made a terrible situation far less bad. Rather the situation argues for a larger stimulus, the kind that Christina Romer, Paul Krugman, Bill Black and many progressives supported more than a year ago when the ARRA was being crafted. That’s the same ARRA that only three Republicans were willing to vote for despite prodigious efforts by the White House to get them on board by giving them the sugar they asked to be attached to the bill.

The folks at Think Progress have a new report illustrating just how astoundingly dishonest Republicans have been in this regard. OK. Sorry. Not astoundingly. Typically.

Think Progress’s finding: 111 Republicans blocked the stimulus but have since taken credit with their constituents for its successes. Here are some excerpts. Each of the 111, including the six below, voted against the ARRA, many of them twice:

Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) Issued Pres Releases Bragging About Bringing Stimulus Jobs To His District. On July 28th, Kingston’s press office fired off two releases bragging about a $106,901 grant for the Alma Police Department and a $138,286 grant for the Jesup Police Department in Georgia. These grants, distributed by the Department of Justice for the “hiring of new police officers, to combat violence against women, and to fight Internet crimes against children,” were fully-funded by President Obama’s Recovery Act. …

Rep. Joseph Cao (R-LA) Working To ‘Channel’ Recovery Act Funds To New Orleans. Rep. Joseph Cao (R-LA) is now working to bring Recovery Act money into his district. Last week, the Times-Picayune reported that Cao has been meeting with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to apply to “use stimulus money for additional streetcar expansions and road repairs.” Cao boasted that he is now working to “channel” the money that he opposed to his district. …

Rep. Mary Fallin (R-OK) Requested Army Secretary Use $8.4m in Stimulus Funds for Projects in Oklahoma. Rep. Mary Fallin (R-OK) — who called the stimulus a “Big Brother spending program” — asked Army Secretary Pete Geren to use $8.4 million in stimulus money for repairs to buildings at two Oklahoma National Guard sites. …

Congressman Dave Reichert (R-WA) Acknowledged Recovery Package Will Deliver Good News For District. The Boston Globe reported: “Reichert acknowledges that the stimulus bill will deliver tangible good news to his constituents… ‘I feel a responsibility at this point to make this still work.’”…

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) Praised Stimulus Funding For Local Courthouse. According to a document published by ABC News, McCarthy praised $31 million in stimulus funds for a Bakersfield courthouse. …

Rep. Tim Johnson (R-IL) Signed A Letter Requesting Stimulus Funds For Illinois Community Colleges. According to a release from the Illinois Community College Trustees Association, every member of the Illinois congressional delegation signed a letter urging Gov. Pat Quinn to provide “Recovery Act (ARRA) funding to expand the Illinois Community College Sustainability Network.”

There are 105 other disingenuous Republicans included in the report. You can click to see if your Representative is one of them.