Since President Obama's stimulus package passed in 2009, a number of Congressional Republicans have publicly decried the program, while privately lobbying to brings the funds into their districts. As Rachel Maddow pointed out on Thursday, Paul Ryan is one of them. Ands to make things worse, he's been caught in what looks like a flat-out lie about it.
At the time the bill was passed, Ryan spoke out against it. "We can do better than this. This bill, this package, is unworthy of our new President's signatures," he said, also arguing that "this is not going to work."
Indeed, in a radio appearance on Wisconsin's WBZ NewsRadio 1030, dug up by the AP, a caller who identified himself as Joe from Stoughton asked Ryan about the funds. “I assume you voted against the stimulus and I’m just curious if you accepted any money in your district,” Joe from Stoughton asked.
Ryan replied:
No, I’m not one (of those) people who votes for something then writes to the government to ask them to send us money. I did not request any stimulus money.
Interesting. This week, the Boston Globe and the Wall Street Journal revealed letters from Ryan to various government agencies requesting stimulus money, and emphasizing how much it would help his district. One Ryan letter to the Department of Energy asks for stimulus funds to place 1000 workers in green jobs. Another Ryan letter on behalf of the Wisconsin Energy Conservation Corporation helped it secure $20 million from the federal government, by saying that the company would “create or retain approximately 7,600 new jobs over the three-year grant period and the subsequent three years."
Asked about these letters Thursday, Ryan denied sounded confused: "I never asked for stimulus...I don't recall...I haven't seen this report so I really can't comment on it. I oppose the stimulus because it doesn't work. It didn't work."
Hours later, he appears to have realized the game was up. He put out a statement saying that it was his office that had sent the requests, but not him, exactly.
"After having these letters called to my attention I checked into them, and they were treated as constituent service requests in the same way matters involving Social Security or Veterans Affairs are handled," the statement said. "This is why I didn't recall the letters earlier. But they should have been handled differently, and I take responsibility for that. Regardless, it's clear that the Obama stimulus did nothing to stimulate the economy, and now the President is asking to do it all over again."
It was actually this sort of stimulus hypocrisy, of course, that got the last GOP vice presidential candidate into so much trouble in 2008. Remember Sarah Palin's infamous "Bridge to Nowhere"?
And for what it's worth, most studies show that the stimulus did, in fact, help the economy.
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If he doesn't know what his staff is doing in the State of Wisconsin, then how is he going to handle his staff if elected as Vice President? It is my opinion he needed and used stimulus money to help his state.
Welcome to Big Boy Politics, you punk. And the existence of video and audio recordings. And of course centuries-old paper. Typical liar, he and Vulture make a great pair. Vulture & Voucher.
Oh, and P.S.: This........."He put out a statement saying that it was his office that had sent the requests, but not him, exactly."....is a CROCK of chit.
C'mon..... You didn't really expect anything different from the acolyte of Ayn Rand, did you? He was just borrowing a page from her book.... after denouncing and demonizing social assistance programs for years, she certainly didn't have a problem abandoning her principles and collecting Social Security under another name....
Paul Ryan will feed at the public trough just like any other Tea Party/GOP swine herder. Its just that Paul Ryan expects someone else to pay for the feed in the public feed trough other than his rich swine herders that pay for his political campaigns. All pigs on the capitalist pig farm are equal but Paul Ryan's pigs are more equal than the others.
isn't it true if ryan loses the race he's also out of congress too?
Bob Schieffer (CBS NEWS -- Aug. 12 7 p.m. interview on 60_MINUTES) did ask whether he will run in that congressional district and the two men affirmed that he was "on that ballot" -- state law will determine whether given the national outcome in the Electoral College if he then vacates the office or stays in place during weeks of Nov. and Dec. 2012 -- as a Vice President his job would not start until Jan. 20, 2013 when the victors (Prez and Veep) are sworn in by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
Under Wisconsin law, he can run for both offices simultaneously, but if he wins both elections he'll have to resign from one of them. I don't know if he's decided to withdraw from the House race or not.
Goodness gracious, let's hope that Paul Ryan will be out of Congress when Romney/Ryan loses the election.
Goodness gracious, let's hope Paul Ryan is automatically out of Congress when Romney/Ryan shuffles off to the dustbin of history.
He can always do a P90-X video with Tony Horton. All of Tony's fitness models are struggling actors, maybe its time for Ryan to go for a career change.
Did he not read what he signed his name to? Once he read the letters that his staff wrote and signed his name it became his request.