Published: August 28, 2009 04:56 pm      

Eager to spend — 08/30/09

GOP members of Congress are vying for funds they opposed

When the massive $787 billion economic stimulus bill became the first major piece of legislation enacted under the new presidency of Barack Obama, it cleared Congress without much help from the Republican minority. Not a single GOP House member voted for the bill and it received only three votes from GOP senators, including one from a then-Republican senator who has since become a Democrat.

But Republicans who sharply criticized the stimulus package as being irresponsibly expensive are putting their opposition to the bill aside and accepting millions of dollars from it.

For example, stimulus critics Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, Republican senators from Georgia, have asked that $50 million be steered to a constituent’s bioenergy project. And GOP Rep. Mary Fallin — who dismissed the stimulus bill as “Big Brother spending” — is asking for $8.4 million to fix up two Oklahoma National Guard facilities. And freshman Rep. Brett Guthrie from Kentucky’s 2nd Distinct — who criticized the “staggering” cost of the stimulus — is seeking stimulus money to renovate a military hospital at Fort Knox in his district. And despite voting against the bill, Rep. Bill Young, R-Fla., has links on his congressional Web site urging constituents to cash in on the stimulus.

Some Democrats are criticizing Republicans for being so eager to spend the money they opposed, saying the GOP can’t have it both ways. Yes, it can, and if the shoe were on the other foot, Democrats would be doing the same thing.

As we see it, every single American taxpayer is helping pay for the stimulus package and the payments will extend into the next generation. When the GOP united in opposing the stimulus package, it was a matter of principle. When the stimulus package became the law of the land, the issue shifted from being one of principle to one of helping the folks back home with needed projects. A huge federal money pie is being sliced up and served. The GOP may not have helped bake the pie, but since their money is helping to pay for it, they deserve a piece of it.

U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis voted against the stimulus package, as did U.S. Sens. Jim Bunning and Mitch McConnell. But just because our representatives all opposed the bill should not deny this community the funds to “stimulate” our economy.

Besides, as the late Senate Republican leader Everett Dirksen used to say, “Sometimes a man must rise above principle.” This is one of those times.