White House Challenges Republicans Claiming Credit for Projects they Tried to Stop
February 05, 2010 4:05 PM
Compton ABC News' Ann Compton reports: The White House has the names, dates, and even photographs to challenge Republican members of Congress who voted against the Recovery Act and its spending last year, but who also went home to claim credit for projects the stimulus brought to their districts.
“A lot of you have gone to appear at ribbon cuttings for the same projects you voted against,” President Obama chided the House members to their face at a policy conference one week ago.
The White House list includes nearly two dozen House members, including leaders John Boehner of Ohio and Eric Cantor of Virginia, and half a dozen senators.
The document put out by the White House includes highlighted press releases and newspaper clippings showing Republicans who voted against the Recovery Act accepting praise for Act-sponsored projects in their home districts.
The full White House document can be viewed HERE. Among the Republicans signaled out in the document:
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Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) is pictured above presenting a $625,000 check to the City of Cedartown in 2009.
- Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.), who is shown posing with a giant check in a Nov. 5, 2009, article in the Cedartown Standard. Gingrey presented Cedarville with $625,000 in stimulus money to "fund new sidewalks, landscaping and other improvements to the downtown area," according to the article.
- Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), praising a $106,901 Recovery Act grant to the Alma Police Department as a "local initiative" that would help "toward solving local problems that policies set in Washington [sic]." According to the White House document, Kingston also took credit for four additional Recovery Act projects, including a $108,652 grant to the Blackshear Housing Authority and a $2.7 grant million for low-income families in Savannah.
- House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), who issued a statement on his Web site that he was "pleased that federal officials have stepped in" to order Ohio to use its stimulus funds for "shovel-ready" construction projects.
- Rep. John Mica (R-Fl.), who applauded the Recovery Act's $8 billion for high-speed rail investment in a press release. He later said that he “applaud[s] President Obama's recognition that high-speed rail should be part of America's future,” according to the document.
- Rep. John Carter (R-Texas), who hailed a $621 million stimulus grant for new hospitals at Fort Hood after initially charging that the stimulus would "pile debt on future generations.”
- Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.), who praised a $4.2 million stimulus grant to her district to prevent homelessness, asserting that the "funding will provide much-needed assistance."
- Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), who, after voting against the stimulus, posted to his Twitter, "Stimulus Incentive Is Very Generous! Up to 8k! Check It Out!"
- Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-Texas), who said that an $8.6 million grant for a Veterans Affairs extended care facility would help to "spur growth in Texas communities."
- Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), who applauded $2 million to build a new volunteer fire department in Bethlehem and told the Hickory Daily Record, "We're not accustomed to federal dollars in that magnitude finding their way to North Carolina.”
President Obama says even the Recovery Act spending will not be enough to bring jobs back after the deep recession.
ABC News’ Julie Percha contributed to this report.
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