We Need A Stimulus: Follow-Up

I have been inspired to provide a quick follow-up to yesterday's blog entry We Need A Stimulus.  One of the stories on tonight's episode of MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show was the hypocrisy of those in the GOP who decry government spending to spur job growth. More specifically she went after Republicans that publicly rail against the stimulus while privately requesting stimulus funds from the Obama administration and admitting that requested funds will create jobs.  Rachel provided a link to a previous episode that covered this topic along with other articles that point out this hypocrisy citing specific examples.


The first link is from an article I read this morning written by Sam Stein for the Huffington post.  Anybody whose heard of GOP Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann probably know that she's very open in her disdain for government and government spending.  Anti-government spending is one of the major pillars of her campaign but Mr. Stein did a little research and found several letters she had written in 2009 requesting government stimulus funds for her district and in those letters she lists how many jobs those stimulus funds will create:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/10/michele-bachmann-stimulus_n_922851.html

Another article that was not available on her website was written by Steve Benen of Washington Monthly who was a guest on tonight's show.  He has a proposal for the President and one I think could be a very effective stimulus:

"Here's the pitch: have the White House take the several hundred letters GOP lawmakers have sent to the executive branch since 2009, asking for public investments, and let President Obama announce he'll gladly fund all of the Repulicans' requests that have not yet been filled."

You can read his full article here:

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_08/how_about_a_bachmanninspired_s031432.php

The next article is by Lee Fang of Think Progress illustrating how 110 GOP lawmakers who voted against the stimulus tout its success and ask for more funds for their districts:

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2010/02/17/82325/stimulus-hypocrisy-101/

And the final link is to a video segment from a previous The Rachel Maddow Show episode that listed lawmakers who voted against the stimulus but praised stimulus programs and asked for more funds (I'm not sure of the original air date):

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/vp/35340296#35340296

As I eluded to yesterday, targeted government spending to programs that create jobs and grow the economy has always been a bipartisan issue.  Presidents from both parties have enacted these types of stimulus measures.  The same bipartisan support holds true today, the difference is that some GOP politicians vote against the stimulus and pretend not to support it directly but then take photo-ops once the money creates jobs in their districts and secretly write letters requesting more.  It's time for these legislators to come out of the stimulus closet and openly propose a job-creating stimulus.  We need to create jobs now.