At a GOP conference on Friday, President Obama exposed the Republican House caucus as hypocrites for their opposition to obstruction of the Recovery Act. Their is strong, overwhelming evidence to back-up his assertion.
When he addressed the GOP House Issues Conference in Baltimore, Maryland, January 29, 2010, President Obama stated that he could not understand the Republicans' The-Party-of-No's attempt to obstruct passage of the Recovery Act:
I didn't understand then, and I still don't understand, why we got opposition in this caucus for almost $300 billion in badly needed tax cuts for the American people or COBRA coverage to help Americans who'd lost jobs in this recession to keep the health insurance that they desperately needed, or opposition to putting Americans to work laying broadband and rebuilding roads and bridges and breaking ground on new construction projects.
There was an interesting headline in — in CNN today: Americans disapprove of stimulus, but like every policy in it. And there was a poll that showed that if you broke it down into its component parts, 80 percent approved of the tax cuts, 80 percent approved of the infrastructure, 80 percent approved of the assistance to the unemployed.
Well, that's what the Recovery Act was, and I — you know, let's face it, some of you have been at the ribbon cuttings for some of these important projects in your communities.
It is not difficult to show that the President's assertion that Republicans voted NO! on the Recovery Act, but reaped its benefits is true. Here are two examples, one a House member, the other a Senator:
Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) Held A Job Fair Where Nearly Half The 30 Organizations Received Stimulus Funds; Cantor Also Supported Using Stimulus Funds To Build A Washington To Richmond Rail. Washington Post: "For months, Democrats have dubbed U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia a hypocrite for strongly opposing the federal stimulus package only to promote aspects of it later. Here’s the latest example: Nearly half of the 30 organizations participating in a job fair Cantor is holding Monday in Culpeper were recipients of the stimulus...In the summer, Cantor came under fire after he talked about his support of using stimulus money to build a rail project from Washington to Richmond." [Washington Post Virginia Blog, 11/18/09]
- Congressman Eric Cantor Voted Against The Recovery Package Twice [Roll Call Vote #46; Roll Call Vote #70]
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) Brags About Stimulus Projects, Requests More Money. McConnell and Rep. Ben Chandler (D-KY) toured a construction site at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Madison County, Kentucky. McConnell quickly took credit for the new construction, noting that he and Chandler had inserted an additional $5 million into the 2010 budget. McConnell bragged: "This is going to be a source of significant employment. At the peak, we could have up to 600 people working on this, and we believe the substantial majority of those workers will be Kentuckians." However, McConnell conveniently forgot to mention that even more additional funds for facility construction were awarded through the stimulus. A Defense Department report states that $5,876,000 has been allocated from the Recovery Act to the Blue Grass facility for repairs. (Chandler voted for the stimulus.)
- Senator McConnell Voted Against The Recovery Package Twice [Record Vote 59; Record Vote 60]
Those are but two examples from a Think Progress article, Blocking The Recovery While Reaping Its Benefits. These clowns — Yes! There are clowns in Congress — put party ahead of country. They left Democrats to do the heavy lifting, criticized them for spending, then reaped the benefits of the spending. That's shameless, two-faced, hypocrisy from House Republican and Senate Republican "leaders." It shows that their "principles" are nothing more than empty talking points. Alaska's Don Young is among the members of congress cited in the Think Progress article.
Video of The President's opening remarks
A transcript of The President's opening remarks
Note: This diary was originally posted at Palin's Q&A + fun. It has been reproduced with the permission of its author.