Meet the hypocrites: Congressman Greg Walden
Once again, another politician from the Northwest, Republican Congressman Greg Walden (OR-02) voted against the stimulus package passed by Congress, but changed his tune when facing the folks at home. Walden's district spans all of the eastern part of Oregon and most of the south.
Congressman Walden's claims that the 2nd District boasts a "ready and talented workforce and high unemployment" don't strike me as something unique to his district that warrant special consideration when funds get disbursed across the state. Given the opportunity most members of Congress would make the same statement about their districts.
It is highly doubtful that most of the stimulus funds for Oregon will be spent in Congressman Walden's district. He represents the most rural areas of Oregon, and while those areas need assistance too, simple math shows that there are just more people living in other areas of the state.
Why spend the most money on the smallest amount of people?
And why would the Obama Administration or Governor Kulongoski reward Congressman Walden by sending his district the greatest portion of the money, after he failed to support the funding in the first place?
"I figure my job is to try and do whatever I can to clear the hurdles and get the projects going and the people back to work using these funds."The "backlog of work in the forests" that Congressman Walden notes in his remarks has to be a reference to his role as a co-sponsor of the Bush Administration's Healthy Forests Restoration Act, which is more accurately referred to as Leave No Tree Standing. As long as Walden's district has trees, then there must be a backlog of work, in his mind.
"They are going to be spent somewhere," he added. "I hope they are spent mostly in this region."
[...]
The region should get as much of those funds as possible because of the backlog of work in the forests, the history of wildfires in the region, a ready and talented workforce and high unemployment, he said.
Congressman Walden's claims that the 2nd District boasts a "ready and talented workforce and high unemployment" don't strike me as something unique to his district that warrant special consideration when funds get disbursed across the state. Given the opportunity most members of Congress would make the same statement about their districts.
It is highly doubtful that most of the stimulus funds for Oregon will be spent in Congressman Walden's district. He represents the most rural areas of Oregon, and while those areas need assistance too, simple math shows that there are just more people living in other areas of the state.
Why spend the most money on the smallest amount of people?
And why would the Obama Administration or Governor Kulongoski reward Congressman Walden by sending his district the greatest portion of the money, after he failed to support the funding in the first place?
# Posted by Ken Camp : 8:00 AM
Comments:
REALITY ORIENTATION: If you refused to sign the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that does not mean your District suffer more than others.
There are 441 representatives, including those ones who cannot vote because of they are from territories. That is $1.78 billion being stolen from taxpayers in each district. They deserve some of that money to be spent in their area, since they ARE paying for it.
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