Return of the House of Hypocrisy

The GOP Tea Parties have spawned another tide of hypocritical hand-wringing by Republican office-holders. But at least Democrats are fighting back. As reported by the Mississippi Democratic Party in a press release today:

JACKSON -- State Democratic Chairman Jamie Franks today responded to statements made by Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant during Wednesday's tea party at the state Capitol. Bryant told the crowd that President Obama's stimulus package was a waste of taxpayer money.

"The stimulus package is providing the State of Mississippi with millions of dollars for projects that will create jobs and improve the infrastructure of our cities and our counties," Franks said. "If creating jobs and rebuilding our roads is a waste of money to Phil Bryant, then perhaps we need to protest his leadership in the Senate."

Franks said the stimulus package will also provide tax cuts for working Mississippians, a fact he said Republicans like Bryant and Congressman Gregg Harper have repeatedly ignored. "Thanks to President Obama, working families will receive up to $800 in employee tax breaks," Franks said. "The reason you don't hear Republicans talking about this tax cut is because it helps the middle class, not the richest among us." The stimulus package will provide the following benefits to the State of Mississippi:

55,100 additional children will be provided health insurance.

997,000 workers will receive a tax credit on their paychecks.

30,000 jobs created over the next two years.

63,000 students aided by making the American Opportunity Tax Credit refundable.

"President Obama and Democratic leaders are offering workable solutions to the financial mess the Bush Administration and a Republican Congress got us into," Franks said. "Instead of posing for cameras in front of the Capitol, perhaps Bryant and Harper should go inside and figure out how to lend a helping hand to the people who are suffering because of the policies of their party."

Coincidentally, Y'all Politics pointed its readers yesterday to a blog post that reported the latest statistics on "earmarking" by Members of Congress, and guess who is the All-Star of Earmarking? A Mississippi Republican.

The Y'all Politics post is here

The story says:

Citizens Against Government Waste, a watchdog group critical of pork-barrel spending, released a summary, called the Pig Book, of congressional earmarks at a news conference Tuesday.

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Sen. Thad Cochran, R- Miss., reported more than $650 million for earmark projects such as research of dietary supplements, mosquito trapping and for the Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference. He was the recipient of "The Super Thad Award," for being the senator with the highest value in earmarks.

There you have it. On the one hand, Republicans grandstand to fight against Big Government Spending. On the other hand, they bend over backward to spend the most money.