Day: August 11, 2011

Force the Tea Party to Create Jobs, Part 2: Green Light Infrastructure Projects That House GOP Members Have Requested

Jon Ponder

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The tea party had a big success in early August when it fomented a fake debt ceiling crisis and then used that crisis to take the U.S. economy hostage. By threatening to force the United States into default and trigger a worldwide economic depression, they were able to force the president to accept budget that he and everyone else knows will further stall the recovery.

The biggest obstacle against enacting either of these innovative, politically aggressive ideas that they are probably a little too bold and in-your-face for Pres. Obama’s tastes.

There is little doubt now what the extreme right is up to. They want the economy to fail for the sole purpose of weakening the Obama presidency in order to help elect Mitt Romney next year. Then, they seem to be suggesting, Republicans will “fix” the economy presumably by cutting the corporate tax rate to zero and privatizing the federal government. That way they can finish the job Republicans started during the George Bush presidency of turning the United States’ assets and resources over to their masters, corporate oligarch like the Koch brothers et al.

The best way to fix the economy is to create jobs. There are 14 million Americans who are unemployed right now — that we know of. By putting them back to work, consumer spending will rise, demand for new goods and services will increase and the tax coffers will be replenished and we can start to pay down the national debt.

But the tea party and its poodles in the Republican congressional leadership have made it clear they will do everything in their power to stop job creation.

This is a nasty situation, and it has caused a lot of regular Americans to feel hopeless about the government’s ability to kickstart the economy. (And talk about the tail wagging the dog. While the 62 members of the Tea Party caucus represent 14 percent of the House, just 4 percent of Americans say they are active members of the tea party, according a new CBS/New York Times poll.)

However, in just the past few days, two new political solutions for spurring job growth have been proposed by members of the fourth estate. The ideas are similar in that they are both designed to force tea party Republicans to vote against infrascture projects in their own districts. In one case, the idea would be to force tea partyists like Michele Bachmann to vote against public works projects she herself has requested.

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The Line: Republicans Secretly Love Government Spending

Jon Ponder
  • Sam Stein at Huffington Post, Aug. 10, 2011: “A Freedom of Information Act request filed by The Huffington Post with three separate federal agencies reveals that on at least 16 separate occasions, [Tea Party Caucus Chairwoman Michele] Bachmann petitioned the federal government for direct financial help or aid. A large chunk of those requests were for funds set aside through President Obama’s stimulus program, which Bachmann once labeled “fantasy economics.” Bachmann made two more of those requests to the Environmental Protection Agency, an institution that she has suggested she would eliminate if she were in the White House … Combined with previous revelations that Bachmann personally relied on a federally subsidized home loan while her husband’s business benefited from Medicaid payments, it appears that one of the tea party’s most cherished members has demonstrated that the government does, in fact, play a constructive role — at least in her life and district.
  • Sam Stein, Huffington Post, July 5, 2011: “Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio). On March 8, the freshman Republican co-signed a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration requesting that the Department of Transportation fund a project to improve a runway at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport. The cost of the improvement: $4.365 million. Less than a month later, on the floor of the House, he declared that ‘our nation is broke. The federal government has maxed out its credit card.'”
  • Blogging Blue, July 6, 2011: “[Rep. Stephen Fincher, R-Tenn.] spoke directly with Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood about federal funding for the Cates Landing port project after funding for the project was imperiled by House Republicans who wanted to cut transportation spending as a way of cutting overall government spending. Following his conversation with Secretary LaHood, Rep. Fincher wrote a follow-up letter seeking assistance in “obligating” the $13 million federal grant for the Cates Landing port project.”
  • New York Times, July 19, 2011: “An examination of spending bills, news releases and communications with federal agencies obtained under the Freedom of Information Act shows that nearly two dozen freshmen have sought money for projects that could ultimately cost billions of dollars, while calling for less spending and banning pork projects.” Republican hypocrites on spending include Reps. Tim Scott, S.C.; Jon Runyan, N.J.; Sean P. Duffy, Wisconsin; Michele Bachmann and Steven M. Palazzo, Miss.
  • Quad-City Times in July: “[Tea party favorite Rep. Bobby Schilling, R-Ill.,] has been critical of the stimulus law, which was enacted before he was elected. But he said Friday more of the money should have been devoted to infrastructure projects. “If the government would have taken a lot bigger chunk of that money and put it into infrastructure, we’d be doing a lot better today,” he said.
  • Airport Business, March 17, 2011: “[Tea Party Caucus member] Congressman Allen West (FL-22) announces today the award of a $21 million dollar Federal grant to the Fort Lauderdale -Hollywood International Airport to be used towards the construction of a much needed, second commercial runway. The runway project will generate at least 11,000 jobs and be complete in the fall of 2014 with an estimated budget of $791 million.”
  • DCCC.org, autumn 2010: “[Right-wing extremist Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C.,] signed a letter to Secretary LaHood, along with 14 other members of the North Carolina Congressional Delegation, requesting funds from the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grant in order to ‘reroute and construct a new bridge over the Yadkin River on Interstate 85,’ saying the existing bridge has ‘far exceeded its design lifespan.'”
  • Steve Benen, Washington Monthly, Feb. 16, 2010: “Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said the stimulus “misses the mark on all counts,” but encouraged the Labor Department to invest stimulus money in his district, highlighting a project he said would create 1,000 jobs. Reps. Sue Myrick (R-N.C.) and Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio), both right-wing opponents of the recovery efforts, did the same thing.”
  • Right-wing Korean cult-owned Washington Times, February 9, 2010: “[Tea Party Caucus member] Rep. Joe Wilson, South Carolina Republican who became famous after yelling, “You lie,” during Mr. Obama’s addresses to Congress in September, voted against the stimulus. Nonetheless, Mr. Wilson elbowed his way into the rush for federal stimulus cash in a letter he sent to Mr. Vilsack on behalf of a foundation seeking funding. “