Ryan's Home Base Scoring Big Dollars Through Stimulus And Letter Marks

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I know, you see a chalk board and you might think Glenn Beck was here. Sorry to disappoint. But I couldn't help myself putting our local situation into perspective after I watched Keith Olbermann's video (at the bottom) on congressional districts capturing stimulus dollars through "letter" marks while their GOP representatives publicly slam the "Obama" stimulus as a failure. Olbermann was describing the 1st congressional district recovery to a tee.

With Republicans and the Tea Party, the big problem facing us is the deficit. It’s immoral they say, to spend money we don’t have. No, that’s not right – first we have to extend the Bush tax cuts because the worst time to raise taxes to pay down our debt is during a recession. Deficits can wait until we get the economy back on track - right? But maybe it’s not the deficit that’s the problem – maybe it’s the stimulus spending! That’s it. It’s the democrats fault. But that's not right either because local Republicans claim we need infrastructure improvements. Well, we can still blame democrats right? I mean afterall, they're the ones earmarking the spending.

But does anyone ever wonder why Rep. Paul Ryan’s name doesn’t pop up on the “A” list of deficit spending stimulus congressmen? Primarily it’s because Ryan’s biggest local contributors and support base don’t ask him for anything but tax cuts and smaller government. But don't be fooled, Ryan's home base contributors lobby for state dollars and state tax credits like there is no tomorrow. The catch here is they're not stupid - they do this through state democratic legislators. If state democrats were smart, they'd have Ryan sign his position statement on all state spending requests for his district before moving forward on them. You know, spread some of that inter-governmental love around. But that's another story.

The Rock County establishment base, mostly old money self-described GOP “conservatives,” Rand-roids and "ancient" progressives with a smattering minority of country-conservative democrats make up the boards and membership of Forward Janesville and the Rock County 5.0. Both of these groups, huge, huge Paul Ryan supporters, are also the driving force lobbying state and federal government to deficit spend up to $1.5 billion on the I39/90 interstate expansion. Where’s Ryan? When he’s not plugging his book, he’s out on the trail telling folks Republicans must not "buckle in the knees when it's time to cut spending" like they did the last time they held the majority. But that doesn’t reflect on his support base because remember, Ryan's their smaller government and tax cut guy.

If Republicans win the the majority, Ryan promised to lead a shock and awe campaign to go after government spending which by the way, if true, makes it doubly important for his home base to lock up that $1.5 billion road job now before its too late. Secure the plum first then tax cut the profits afterwards. Socialize the debt on the working tax payers. That’s their ticket to prosperity.

A few months ago, these same Ryan groups also participated in a local economic summit with Obama’s counsel on economic recovery. The groups drew up a request of eight earmarks…”letter” marks totaling over $40 million and instead of presenting their wish list to their congressman Paul Ryan, where it actually belongs –- they presented it to the Obama White House official. Hey, they have Ryan’s "war on spending" image to protect.

JS Online Excerpt:
So far, $3 billion in federal economic recovery funds has come to Wisconsin; of that, $300 million has been targeted to the congressional district that includes Janesville.

In January, it was reported that Rock County was awarded more than $2.3 million in National Emergency Grants to support workers hardest hit by auto layoffs over the past 15 months. These are also “letter” marks requested and granted through the president’s administration.

Finally, Ryan’s name doesn’t pop up on the “A” list of deficit spending stimulus congressmen because he also receives plenty of help from the Janesville Gazette monopoly to cover up these local connections and further protect his image. They are all in the loop on the receiving end of the deficit and stimulus spending, and they are all in the loop for Ryan's smaller government and tax cut prosperity. It's win - win.