Meet the hypocrites: Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers

It's hard to deny the positive effects of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), more commonly known as the "stimulus package", when projects in a congressional district create jobs and, when completed, provide some benefit to the community. Who wouldn't support such economic stimulus? Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Colville), that's who. McMorris Rodgers was happy to vote no on ARRA back in January 2009, but now is more than happy to take credit for the good it has done back home.

Here is the Congresswoman supporting the awarding of $35 million in stimulus funds to a transportation infrastructure project in her district. Apparently, it's all wasteful spending until the funding is spent in Washington's 5th Congressional District.

“One year ago today, President Obama signed into law the controversial $787 billion stimulus bill. I voted against that bill because it didn’t include enough measures to truly stimulate our economy, such as tax relief and infrastructure spending, while spending far too much money on other government projects that would not create jobs. The fact that over 3 million private sector jobs have been lost since the stimulus bill became law supports that argument."

So not only is McMorris Rodgers a hypocrite for taking credit for the results of funding she didn't support, but she also is one of those Republicans who is adamantly against earmarks and what's commonly called pork, unless of course, it's funding for her district.

Take, for example, Congresswoman McMorris Rodgers' own words as published in an op-ed in August 2009:

The other area of potential waste that I wanted to highlight for concerned citizens originates right here in Congress, through earmarks. These funding requests often favor parochial projects that may not benefit the whole country but that are important to a particular member of Congress.

At their worst, these earmarks have bought us "the bridge to nowhere" in Alaska, the Woodstock Museum in New York, and other pork projects that cannot be justified. In the interest of full disclosure, I have requested funding for projects on occasion when they were a priority for the nation and a worthwhile expenditure of taxpayer funds

Not so fast Congresswoman! As The Daily Evergreen of Washington State University notes:

In reality, she “porks” with the best of them. In 2008, McMorris-Rodgers had, “24 records (of pork barrel spending) for a total of $19,654,512,” the Citizens Against Government Waste calculates. Aside from the pork spending, she and her fellow Republicans implemented the regressive Bush Tax Cuts, which significantly contributed to the budget deficit.

The Bush Tax Cuts were the biggest pork barrel project for rich people and corporations in the history of our nation, and 24 requests for funding in one year for a total of $19.6 million doesn't seem to be "on occasion" as the Congresswoman describes them. Her words simply don't match her actions, which is why Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers is the latest GOP hypocrite, though certainly she won't be the last.