Republicans Slam Stimulus On Fifth Anniversary — But Most Took Credit For It Back Home [View all]

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Republicans Slam Stimulus On Fifth Anniversary — But Most Took Credit For It Back Home

By Igor Volsky

Monday marks the five-year anniversary of the passage of the American Recovery Act, President Obama’s $800 billion stimulus stimulus package that invested in everything from infrastructure projects to electronic medical health care records and alternative energy sources. Every single Republican in the House and almost every Republican in the Senate — with the exception of Former Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Arlen Specter (R-PA), and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) — voted against the measure and today the GOP continues to deride the law as wasteful an ineffective.

But as ThinkProgress reported throughout 2009, over half of the GOP caucus praised the effects of the stimulus or took credit for the federal dollars in their home districts and states — despite repeatedly voting against it in Washington D.C. Below is a list of the top 13 stimulus hypocrites:

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TIME’s Michael Grunwald reports that the Obama administration will release a report this week showing that the Recovery Act “increased U.S. GDP by roughly 2 to 2.5 percentage points from late 2009 through mid-2011, keeping us out of a double-dip recession… added about 6 million ‘job years’ (a full-time job for a full year) through the end of 2012…(and) directly prevented 5.3 million people from slipping below the poverty line.” The Congressional Budget Office — and most economists — agree that the law “created higher output and employment than would have occurred without it.”

UPDATE

In a video released Monday, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) argued the stimulus “clearly failed,” noting that “unemployment remains stubbornly high and our economy isn’t growing fast enough – proof that massive government spending, particularly debt spending, is not the solution to our economic growth problems.” But in December of 2009, Rubio told NBC’s Tampa affiliate WFLA, “Ultimately I would have accepted those portions of the money that would not have put Florida in a worse position off in the future than it is right now.’” Rubio later clarified his position to the Weekly Standard: “It’s one thing to say you’ll accept the funds from the federal government. It’s another to actively advocate those policies, which I think are disastrous for America.”

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/02/17/3298561/stimulus-hypocrites/

Here's the list of 13 stimulus hypocrites:

1. Paul Ryan requested stimulus funds for jobs in his district.

2. Eric Cantor held a job fair with organizations that received stimulus funds, supported using stimulus funds.

3. Mitch McConnell bragged about stimulus projects, requested more money.

4. John Boehner admitted stimulus funds would create “much needed jobs.”

5. Lamar Alexander asked for a stimulus job grant.

6. Cathy McMorris Rodgers took credit for $35 million in stimulus highway funds.

7. Jack Kingston issued a press releases bragging about bringing stimulus jobs to his district.

8. Steve King claimed credit for highway stimulus funds he voted against.

9. Phil Gingrey handed out giant stimulus checks in Georgia.

10. Kevin McCarthy praised stimulus funding for local courthouse.

11. Louie Gohmert signed a letter requesting stimulus funds for NASA.

12. John Cornyn wrote two letters asking for stimulus funds.

13. Lindsey Graham claimed it would be “crazy” not to accept recovery dollars.