Paul Ryan: Those Five Times I Asked For Stimulus Millions Were By Accident

Seriously.

Mr. Ryan said in the television interview that he did not recall writing the letters. Later, his office issued a statement that he had since checked into the letters. “They were treated as constituent service requests in the same way matters involving Social Security or Veterans Affairs are handled,’’ he said in the statement. “This is why I didn’t recall the letters earlier. But they should have been handled differently, and I take responsibility for that. Regardless, it’s clear that the Obama stimulus did nothing to stimulate the economy, and now the President is asking to do it all over again.’’

"I didn't do it! OK, I did do it, but it was totally by mistake! Also: Obama sucks!"

Paul Ryan Busted For Stimulus Lie

The Boston Globe rips the veil off Paul Ryan's stimulus piety:

After seeking millions of dollars from a federal stimulus program he opposed on grounds it would not help the economy, Republican vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan then appeared on a Boston talk radio program and denied he lobbied the Obama administration for the home state aid. On October 28, 2010, after the Wisconsin Republican penned at least five letters to two federal departments seeking grants under the Obama administration’s economic recovery package, Ryan responded to a caller on WBZ’s Nightside with Dan Rea who asked if he sought any of the money. Ryan said that he would not vote against something “then write to the government to ask them to send us money.” “I did not request any stimulus money,” he continued. In response to a request from the Boston Globe, the CBS affiliate replayed the audio for a reporter on Thursday. Ryan’s campaign spokesman, Brendan Buck, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

No socialist handouts! Except for MY state!

FLORIDA: Gov. Rick "Medicare Fraud" Scott Rejects Billions For High-Speed Rail

Keep his campaign promise, Florida Gov. Rick "Medicare Fraud" Scott has rejected $2.4B in federal stimulus money for a high-speed rail connection between Orlando and Tampa, a long dreamed of project for both cities' business leaders.

Scott's decision likely means those dollars will be rerouted to California and other states investing in a high-speed rail network that Obama has likened to the national highway system. Scott had previously said he didn't want the state spending any money on the rail line, which required $280 million in matching funds. But backers of the project have said that the consortiums of companies set to bid on the line had indicated a willingness to put up their own money in return for a contract. At his brief press conference, Scott went into little detail about how he made his decision, referring only generally to his conclusions about the current and future cost of the train. The state has spent about $66 million on engineering for the 84-mile system and was about to issue contracts for another $170 million.

The money now goes to another state, tens of millions are now wasted on work already done, and tens of thousands of construction jobs have evaporated for Florida. It's the Tea Party way, people!

New York Stimulates Electronics

Early this week, local news stations around New York delivered many heartwarming stories of low-income families reacting to a $200 per child windfall posted to the bank accounts of families receiving food stamps or welfare. The money, intended to buy back-to-school supplies, was authorized by Gov. Paterson and came from federal stimulus funds. Billionaire progressive George Soros contributed $35M of his own money to the $175M fund, saying that he'd once been a recipient of donated school supplies as a poor child.

However, as these things tend to go, reports are now coming in that much of the money was apparently spent on video games, cell phones, and other electronic devices, as stores report unanticipated runs on those items.

Wegmans and Tops report that ATMs in their stores ran out of cash on Tuesday, the day the money was deposited to food stamp accounts. The county reports that employees at the Wal-Mart store on Hudson Avenue called the Department of Human Services to say they thought welfare fraud was going on because there was a run on high-end electronics. The stores received no notice of the program and would have been prepared had they known, spokeswomen from Tops and Wegmans said. The ATMs first ran out in Syracuse, then the shortage spread to stores around the state, said Jo Natale, director of media relations at Wegmans. By then it was too late to get more cash to the machines, which are run by Wegmans, she said. Tops reported that people would go through the checkout to purchase a pack of gum in order to get cash back from their food stamp debit card and repeat the process, as only $40 is allowed at a time, said communications manager Katie McKenna.

Critics say that a voucher program, in which the funds could only be exchanged for clothes and other school supplies, would have been better. No kidding. Can New York do anything right? Get ready for the wingnuts to latch onto this story. Even if only a small percentage of the windfall went to cell phones or whatever, they'll find examples and scream and scream.

"It's The Stupidest Tea Party I Was Ever At In My Life!" Said Alice

Wingnuts around the nation will gather today for symbolic "Boston tea parties" to protest the banking bailout and Obama's stimulus plan. Protesters will appear at various city landmarks and waterfronts around the nation to lower a ceremonial teabag into the ceremonial mouth of the government. Except in Iowa, where the state says you need an environmental impact study before you can dump anything in the Cedar River. :::shakes fist with impotent rage at fascist overlords:::

AIDS Funding Gets Chunk Of Stimulus

Peter Staley at Poz.com dug into the stimulus bill for the NIH and determined that AIDS research funding will likely rise substantially under Barack Obama's plan.

Tucked away in the massive stimulus package signed by President Obama last week is the largest budget increase in the NIH's history. Thanks to Senator Arlen Specter, the budget of the National Institutes of Health will go from $29 billion to $39 billion — a whopping 34 percent increase (see this NYT story for details). I called Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the top federal official responsible for AIDS research, and asked him how much of this increase would go to AIDS. Short answer, we don't know the exact amount at this point, but it should get approximately the same boost as all the other research areas. The current AIDS research budget is $2.9 billion. That could go up by another $1 billion, give or take a couple hundred grand. That's some serious stimulus.

Oklahoma House Passes Sovereignty Bill

Spurred by President Obama's stimulus package, today the Oklahoma House passed a bill declaring the state sovereign from any rule of the federal government not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, the first shot in a growing national movement intended to give states the power to defy federal laws on a broad range of issues from abortion to gun control to hate crimes.

Via the Christianist site WorldNetDaily:

The Oklahoma House of Representatives passed House Joint Resolution 1003 Feb. 18 by a wide margin, 83 to 13, resolving, "That the State of Oklahoma hereby claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States. "The language of HJR 1003 further serves notice to the federal government "to cease and desist, effectively immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated powers." The sponsor of the resolution, state Rep. Charles Key, told WND the measure was a 'big step toward addressing the biggest problem we have in this country – the federal government violating the supreme law of the land." "The Constitution either means what it says, or it doesn't mean anything at all," Key said. "The federal government must honor and obey the Constitution, just like the states and this citizens of this country are obligated to do, or our system of government begins to fall apart."

Eight other states have sovereignty bills pending, another twelve have bills on the way. Some legal sources call the bills merely symbolic, saying that the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution renders such efforts moot. Others are calling the sovereignty movement the thin wedge of a coming secessionist effort largely driven by disagreements over social policy issues such as gay rights, immigration, and freedom of religion.

CNN Interviews Gay Congressman Jared Polis On Stimulus Bill

Senate Passes Stimulus Bill

And we're off.

The Senate voted on Tuesday to approve an $838 billion economic stimulus plan that stands to become the most expansive anti-recession effort by the United States government since World War II. Congressional leaders said they would immediately begin to work out the differences between the Senate measure and an $820 billion version passed by the House, with President Obama also likely to have a strong voice in the talks. As the Senate voted on the recovery package, President Obama told an audience at a town meeting in Fort Myers, Fla.: “Doing nothing is not an option. You didn’t send me to Washington to do nothing.”

Only three Republicans voted in favor.

Obama's Bitchy Stimulus Speech

Damn, Mr. President. Tell us what you really think. Seriously, this rocks.