It’s typical for hypocrite Republicans to gleefully take whatever federal tax money they can get (e.g., massive net subsidies for most “red states” for agriculture, water, power, roads, health care, you name it) with one hand while relentlessly bashing it with the other. Oh, and they also love to take credit for things that they either had nothing to do with, or even occurred in SPITE of them. For instance, here in Virginia, we benefited tremendously from the Economic Recovery Act of 2009 – which passed with basically ZERO Republican support, and played a huge role in allowing us to recover economically from the Bush/Republican Great Recession – yet you’ll never hear a word about that from Bob McDonnell, Ken Cuccinelli, etc. Instead, THEY take credit for Virginia’s economic recovery, when in fact they made matters much worse via their austerity policies at the state level. One thing these guys have is chutzpah, that’s for sure.
Anyway, this morning we had another example: Bob McDonnell touting “the new $69.5 million interchange at Fairfax County Parkway and Fair Lakes Parkway.” According to Grifter (and Federal Government Basher) Bob:
The 66,000 motorists who travel through this area each day are now shaving valuable minutes off their trips to work, school and shopping…Motorists now have an interchange that smoothes traffic flow and will accommodate future growth. A world-class transportation system is key to both economic opportunity and to the quality of life of every Virginian.
Ain’t that lovely? The only problem is, T-Bob forgot to mention something: according to Rep. Connolly’s office, “More than half of the $70 million cost of the project was funded with a total of $40.8 million in federal funds, which made it possible for VDOT to advance the project by two years.” In fact, “The project remained in VDOT’s ‘unfunded’ category until the Commonwealth received the needed federal funding through the Recovery Act.” Details, details, huh? 🙂
So, did Bob McDonnell just “forget” to mention any of that highly pertinent information? Or, more likely, did he decide to remove it from his talking points, as obviously it interferes with the narrative he’s trying to construct, that he – and only he – is responsible for any accomplishment that takes place in Virginia (didn’t ya know, the economic recovery here was ALL BOB! lol). Well, sorry Bob, but that little thing called “reality” simply doesn’t back you up. To the contrary, as Rep. Connolly says, “As [Fairfax County Board of Supervisors] Chairman, I worked with my colleagues here on the Board of Supervisors and VDOT to set aside money and advocate for this project.” And, Connolly adds, “In Congress, I was proud to support the Recovery Act, which provided the final $13 million necessary to complete this important traffic improvement project.” Hmmmm.
So, maybe now that Bob McDonnell has all the facts, he might update his website accordingly to provide a fairer picture of how this project came about? Naaaaaaaaah! Who am I kidding?!? Heh.
P.S. From folks who were at the ribbon cutting, I hear that Fairfax County Board Chair Sharon Bulova DID point out the “stimulus” funding for this project, and also reminded the crowd that federal funding played a part in finishing the Fairfax County Parkway as well. She particularly made a point of thanking Rep. Connolly for his help. In contrast, Gov. Grifter (aka, “T-Bob”) blabbered on and on, but didn’t mention federal dollars (e.g., OUR tax money!) at all. Shocker, huh?
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