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From this Thursday's Maddow Show, Rachel explains that Rep. Paul Ryan and now Mitt Romney vice presidential running mate is one of those Republicans that we saw way too many of, who were out there publicly decrying the stimulus bill as wasteful spending and something that didn't work in regards to job creation, and at the same time were privately advocating for stimulus funds to come into their district.
And as she noted, Ryan was not just one of these people in Congress who were saying that well, the money's out there, so we may as well get some for my district. He was saying in public that stimulus spending does not create jobs and that it's a failure, while privately saying the opposite. And he's still lying now that he got called out on it.
From Think Progress: After Documents Show Paul Ryan Secured $20 Million In Stimulus Grants, He Claims ‘I Never Asked For Stimulus’:
On Tuesday, the Boston Globe and Associated Press reported on documents showing that GOP Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan had secured more than $20 million in stimulus funds for a local energy efficiency organization.
According to the reports, the documents showed that Ryan also brought in $5.4 million for local bus services. His requests came at the same time he was publicly calling the stimulus a “wasteful spending spree.”
However, in an interview with a local Ohio television news station, Ryan claimed he never secured funding through the program, saying “I never asked for stimulus.” [...]
Ryan is one of dozens of Congressional Republicans who have actively lobbied the government for loan guarantees and grants for clean energy companies in their districts — even while many of them railed on the stimulus program in the press.
Think Progress has all of the letters posted if you'd like to read them and here's how Ryan responded after it appeared he had little other choice and the letters surfaced:
Ryan has issued a statement explaining why he falsely claimed he never requested Recovery funds:
“After having these letters called to my attention I checked into them, and they were treated as constituent service requests in the same way matters involving Social Security or Veterans Affairs are handled. This is why I didn’t recall the letters earlier,” he continued. “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.”
Here is Rachel's response to that:
MADDOW: It did nothing to stimulate the economy, even though I wrote letters saying "Please give me this money. It will help stimulate the economy." And then I signed my name at the bottom of those letters. And if I did request all that stimulus money, which I did, by the way, I did it by mistake. My staff did it. I signed it, yeah, but it was my staff.
As she noted following that, neither Ryan or Romney have been giving the voters much of a reason to trust them. I'd say that's a huge understatement, since Romney's campaign has been based on nothing but lies since the day he announced this time around.
