Democrats think they’ve found the latest example of a Republican trying to have their cake and eat it too on the $814* billion stimulus bill.
California Rep. David Dreier, the top Republican on the House Rules Committee, signed his name to an Aug. 2 letter to the president, inviting him to attend a celebration ceremony for a stimulus project that will take place Friday in Pomona. The letter stated that the stimulus project has created “good-paying, high-quality jobs.”
The letter, signed by Dreier and three other Democrats, went on to say that the unveiling of “the world’s first rapidly recharging, battery-powered electric bus,” dubbed the “Ecoliner,” would be a “unique opportunity to highlight some of the administration’s most important objectives and accomplishments.”
“Our region is blue collar and suffering from an unemployment rate of more than 12 percent – an official visit would draw attention to some of the positive changes that often go unnoticed,” the letter reads.
In addition to Dreier, Rep. Grace Napolitano, Rep. Judy Chu and Rep. Adam Schiff all signed the letter (click here to read the full letter).
Dreier last month told a local paper that the stimulus, which is widely unpopular around the country, “clearly hasn’t worked.”
Dreier, who has held his House seat since 1981 and who flirted with serving as temporary House Majority Leader in 2005, cited statistics showing that California has lost 526,000 jobs and the unemployment rate has risen since the stimulus was passed by Congress in February 2009.
A Dreier spokesman said that the letter originated in Napolitano’s office and that the Republican signed it as an act of bipartisanship, and that any praise for the Ecoliner project should not be interpreted as commendation of the overall stimulus legislation.
“The praise in the letter is for the Ecoliner project and Foothill Transit, one of the few pre-existing projects that was able to use some of the less than 7 percent of stimulus dollars dedicated to moving infrastructure projects forward,” Dreier spokeswoman Jo Maney wrote in an e-mail.
“Congressman Dreier has consistently led the bipartisan effort to support Foothill Transit, long before they received stimulus funding. In fact, this purchase was already in the works pre-stimulus, it just happened more quickly with the extra money,” Maney said.
“Mr. Dreier has stated over and over that the stimulus has not created the jobs promised – California has LOST 526,000 since it passed,” she said. “He in no way endorses the stimulus as a success.”
Obama is not going to attend the Ecoliner ceremony, the White House said.
*The Congressional Budget Office in August revised its cost estimate for the stimulus downward from $862 billion, the number originally used in this article.