Posted on 10/19/2010 6:51:19 AM PDT by ejdrapes
Despite vocal criticism of the federal stimulus package and a re-election campaign that trades heavily on her opposition to it, Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann sought stimulus funding on at least seven occasions last year.
The requests, which came in August and September of 2009, were released Sunday by the investigative journalism site Center for Public Integrity.
They include a request for funding for a $150 million expansion of the Northstar commuter rail line to St. Cloud — something Bachmann had declined to back just months earlier.
The Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan Washington-based group, said Bachmann was among almost 2,000 GOP and Democratic stimulus opponents who wrote behind-the-scenes
letters requesting funds for projects.
Bachmann defended her request for money from the $787 billion stimulus package, even though in her latest ads she refers to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act as "the failed (House Speaker Nancy) Pelosi trillion-dollar stimulus."
In a statement, she continued to attack the package, which she voted against, saying it has been misspent.
"It is my obligation as a member of Congress to ensure stimulus dollars are spent on the most worthy projects," Bachmann said in a statement. "I did just that when I supported applications for the (stimulus) grant program."
(Excerpt) Read more at twincities.com ...
That does not make her a hypocritical socialist...asking for tax payer funded boondoggles with borrowed money does...
She does NOT have the Constitutional authority to ask for money from all citizens to return to a select few citizens ...she broke her oath she should be gone...
mark Bachman off my list...
That’s not how it works. The feds took by force X amount of dollars from the people of Minn. There was no option to not participate. She must now try to get that money back, don’t you think?
Think about this: the Obama Administration is seizing your children's money. You can't stop them.
Do you let them keep it and send it to your enemies, or do you try to get it back and direct it to your children's interest?
If I can't stop the theft, at least I can redirect the result...
yes, I heard B.H.O. was going to try and tie conservatives in with the stimulus...trying to make them be “hypocrites” for taking the money yet opposing the stimulus.
Of course, B.H.O. also believed the economy was going to be kicking ass by now, and he’d be able to crush Republicans in the process...didn’t quite work out that way, did it?
Essentially, what happened was Obama said “We’re gonna piss away our great-grandchildren’s money no matter what you say. If you want some of it, come get it.”
So, everyone tried to get it—and all Michelle has to say is, “Yeah, I got some of it—better it go toward a commuter rail in Minnesota than that stupid “Pig Odor” study Tom Harkin used stimulus money on! And by the way—if I’d HAD my way, we wouldn’t be spending it AT ALL!”
So-called journalists who help Obama in this charade are stooges.
How about asking for the money that her "select few citizens" had taken from them? Should Bachmann just roll over and give it to Nancy Pelosi's citizens (and non-citizens)?
Then don't condemn the program and criticize those who supported it if you've got your nose in the trough along side them.
The GOP seized my children’s money from 1995-2006 and with stuff like this from one of its 10 most conservative members it is clear they are going to be socialists again.
As to your question...I would try and get MY CHILDREN’s money back as a private citizen...as a member of Congress I would NOT HAVE THE authority to seize money from all citizen’s and redistribute it to a narrow set of “Children” and by children we men Bachman’s special interests who she needs to pacify for more power for ourselves( re-election).
She broke her oath in an eye catchingly hypocritical way...she should be gone.
If Obama robbed a bank and said he was going to give it to members of Congress . Should Bachman have taken the money “for her district” since Obama has already robbed the bank. Obama is guilty of theft and so is Bachman. Only one is a hypocrite.
This is not in the least hypocritical. She tried to prevent it. But, once it was passed, it was going to suck money out of the taxpayers of Minnesota no matter what she did. It is her duty to try to get some of it back.
What is the definition of spending tax money wisely? And why does a $150 million expansion of a commuter rail line in her district qualify?
I’m opposed to Sosh Security in it’s current form, but if it’s there when I retire (doubtful), I’m going to get my little stipend.
In the mean time, I support those who favor privatization.
So Bachmann criticized the program as a giant boondoggle and a waste of govenrment money and campaigned on that position while at the same time grabbing all that wasted boondoggle money she could get her hands on. And you don't find that even a leeetle bit hypocritical?
You are short sighted.
It’s almost like they don’t want the voters to discover that to avoid taking ANY stimulus money, a congress critter would be sentencing their constituents to being the victim of robbery, without recovering any of the stolen money - even though it’s available.
Interesting thread and responses...
Were we not cheering the few Governors that attempted to refuse stimulus funds for their state?
So which is it FReepers? Is Michele caught in the web for the federal stimulus?
Not in the slightest. Just pragmatic. Making the best of a bad situation, while trying to make sure the bad situation never happens again. It isn’t as if she could protect the taxpayers of Minnesota by refusing to take any stimulus money. She would just be hurting them.
I know a guy who was laid off for over a year due to staffing cut backs but refused to apply for unemployment because he didn't believe in it. I thought he was an idiot for doing so, but also respected him because there was no hypocrisy in his position. He lived his beliefs and refused to compromise and accept something he truly believed was wrong. If you truly believe Social Security is wrong then turn it down. If Bachmann truly believed the stimulus is wrong then she shouldn't have participated in it. Anything else is hypocritical.
Exactly! It is her constituents money being spent too! They might as well get some of it back.
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