WI-Sen: GOP anti-government hypocrisy, episode #1716

...And a four-digit number on the examples of GOP anti-government hypocrisy could easily be low-balling it.

Today's honoree is a guy who has been an unyielding source of entertainment in the past two weeks: Wisconsin Republican Senate frontrunner Ron Johnson.

In his campaign, Johnson has sold himself as a businessman who bootstrapped himself to greatness without any help from that damned intrusive government.

Ahem:

In an interview with 27 News on Aug. 17, Johnson railed against government subsidies for businesses and products.

"I'm in business," he said. "I have never lobbied for some special treatment or for a government payment."

He went on to say, "When you subsidize things...it doesn't work through the free market system very well."

According to a July 19, 1985, article published in the Oshkosh Northwestern, a $2.5 million industrial development revenue bond was approved by the Oshkosh Common Council on July 18, 1985. An article in the same newspaper, dated Feb. 16, 1986, said Pacur Inc., co-owned by Johnson, used the money to build a 40,000-square-foot addition.

So, to recap, when this guy's business needed to expand, where did he go? Right to the government (in this case, the municipal government).

This, from a guy whose website includes the snappy one-liner “Government doesn’t create jobs – the private sector creates jobs.”