[Republicans] Who Voted Against The Recovery Act Now Beg For Stimulus Funds For NASA

[ProSense]

Texas Lawmakers Who Voted Against The Recovery Act Now Beg For Stimulus Funds For NASA

Every single Republican in the House voted against the $819 billion Recovery Act in January. Among the Republican senators who voted against the stimulus were Texas’ Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn. Both of them complained that they wanted to see more tax cuts rather than government spending.

But now, both Hutchison and Cornyn are pressuring the Obama administration to give Texas $3 billion in stimulus funds. The co-signers on the letter are a bipartisan group of the Texas delegation in the House, including 19 Republicans, all of whom also voted against the funds for which they’re now begging. The letter was drafted and circulated by GOP Rep. Pete Olson. From the letter:

Therefore, to ensure the U.S. maintains its leadership in human space exploration, we respectfully ask that you include in your promised amended budget request for NASA’s Exploration Systems a request to Congress to reallocate the necessary funds for NASA from the funds that we anticipate will remain available from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). As of last month, less than 15 percent of ARRA funds had been expended.

Since the stated purpose of the stimulus package was to secure good jobs and stabilize our economy, there is no better investment that could be made than the addition of up to $3 billion to NASA in FY2010, and the projection of at least that level of increase, as recommended by your Committee, at a 2.4% rate of inflation in the out-year projections included in the initial FY2010 Request.

Cornyn said that while the stimulus funding “that has already been spent (is) clearly not working, it is my hope that the Administration will use a portion of the remaining, authorized, unspent stimulus dollars to safeguard our nation’s space program.”

Texas isn’t the only state showing this stimulus hypocrisy. Some other examples:

more

[Clio the Leo]

1. That reminds me of.....

something that's going on here....

Wamp decries cut in funds to replace crumbling Chickamauga Lock on Tennessee River
By Associated Press
7:10 AM CDT, October 2, 2009

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp says the crumbling Chickamauga Lock on the Tennessee River at Chattanooga is in danger of being closed unless Congress approves more money for it.

The Chattanooga Times Free Press quoted the Chattanooga Republican lawmaker's speech on the House floor Thursday in which Wamp said the concrete deterioration has become "a crisis for the biggest inland waterway" in the country.

Wamp and Democratic Rep. Lincoln Davis tried unsuccessfully on Wednesday to get a Senate-House committee to allow $14 million approved earlier by House members.

The panel, instead, allowed only $1 million toward construction of a replacement lock in the federal fiscal year that began Thursday.

Can stimulus money not be used for this? I'm missing something.....


ETA: Perhaps answering my own question...

Lock gets stimulus boost

By Dave Flessner [e-mail]



Federal funding for the Chickamauga Lock will more than double this year, thanks to federal legislation that one of the lock’s biggest backers didn’t even support.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced Tuesday that the replacement lock at the Chickamauga Dam will get an extra $58.9 million from the federal stimulus plan approved in February. The Corps divvied up $4.6 billion from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act among dams and locks across the nation.

The Corps began building a bigger replacement lock for

the 67-year-old Chickamauga

Lock in 2006 and already was spending $42 million this year to begin work on a cofferdam — a temporary barrier to create a dry work zone in a usually submerged area — and design for the new lock.

“The stimulus funding will allow us to fully fund the cofferdam contract and allows us to fabricate new gates, valves and minor bridges for the project,” said Tom Cayce, chief of the programs and project delivery branch of the Army Corps of Engineers.

The Chickamauga Lock, built in the early 1940s, suffers from problems with expansion of the concrete in its walls, causing mechanical problems with the lock doors. The Corps launched a $330 million program in 2006 to replace the crumbing lock with a bigger lock through the TVA dam.

Even though he voted against the $787 billion stimulus plan, U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., praised the Corps for putting money in the “shovel-ready” projects for the new Chickamauga Lock.

“This is very good news for the Chickamauga Lock, and the Corps is to be commended for its work,” he said. “Every cloud has a silver lining.”

Rep. Wamp joined with other Republicans in opposing the stimulus plan, which he said was too expensive and not oriented enough toward infrastructure programs. But he said the lock replacement under way at the Chickamauga Dam is a worthwhile project that the stimulus plan can supplement.

http://epaper.timesfreepress.com/Repository/getFiles.asp?Style=OliveXLib:ArticleToMail&Type=text/html&Path=ChatTFPress/2009/04/29&ID=Ar01104&Locale=

[babylonsister]

2. Hey Cornyn, you clown, if the stim isn't working now, what makes you

think that $3B you're begging for will work?

I feel for NASA and the people who work there, but what about any clue from rethugs in the state? No one had any foresight to anticipate this? Maybe they're in the wrong job if they couldn't be bothered to think about their constituents in the first place.

:eyes:

[ShortnFiery]

3. Screw NASA we'll only use it to *weaponize* space. eom

[NYC Democrat]

7. how do you keep yourself alive with all that paranoia you seem to have??

[liberal N proud]

4. Feeding the NASA Contractors

[neverforget]

9. yeah since NASA was founded

[PBS Poll-435]

5. Aren't my Senators like totally awesome

:puke::puke:


At least one of them is quitting.

[Jennicut]

6. Oh, the utter irony of it all.

Beg for the money, fools.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

8. I think they should literally have to beg for the money on a new Reality show

Show Me the Stimulus

Lawmakers who voted against the stimulus will be pitted against each other in a series of elimination challenges, some mental, some physical. Last lawmaker standing gets the stimulus.

[Moderator]

10. A few years back, some jughead R in the TX leg pushed through

a bill which became law, limiting how much one could receive for insurance claims. A couple of months later, his son was involved in an accident and became a quadriplegic,
(very sad).

In any case, he got up in front to the TX leg and "demanded" his son be "exempted" from the cap.

I feel for the kid, but his asshole father made the kids life immeasurably more disastrous. These people always claim privilege, when they would deny it to others...:grr:

[Ganja Ninja]

11. While were giving away 3 billion to NASA why not ...

spend a little more and move their operations to a rust belt state like Michigan where they could really use the boost to their economy.

[BeyondGeography]

12. Maybe have everyone ask their neighbors or do a statewide NASA bake sale?