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One thing Republican Congressional leaders are clear on is that they don’t want no stinking government health care plan. Well… except, of course, for the government paid health plan that they get. But, they say, that’s different, because… well… uh… never mind, let’s talk about something else.
One thing the GOP talked a lot about last spring was the evil, socialistic, Obamanistic, big government stimulus bill intended to pump some $800 billion into economic recovery programs all across America. Too much money, they wailed! Won’t work! We’re aginst it! Sure enough, every Republican house member and all but three of the party’s senators voted no, uh-uh, no way, nyet.
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But the bill passed anyway, and now that the money is moving out to local projects, guess who’s jumped out front to claim credit for bringing home the bacon? Right – those anti-spending Republican idealists.
For example, in August, GOP senate leader Mitch McConnell loudly opposed stimulus spending. Yet, on the very same day of his denouncation, Mitch was just as loudly taking credit for jobs created by an Army construction project in his state – funded by the stimulus package.
Also, such Republican governors as Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal noisily objected to the stimulus spending program. He blasted the bill as a “stimulus that has not stimulated.” Cute line. But the next day, Bobby traveled to Vernon Parish for a photo-op of him delivering a jumbo federal check to a local project – funded by the stimulus bill. Likewise, Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina, has had a miraculous conversion to stimulus spending. Agily setting principal aside, he now declares that his opposition to the bill “doesn’t preclude taking the money.”
Watch what these anti-government ideologues do – not what they say.
“Stimulating Hypocrisy,” The Progress Report, August 28, 2009.