GOP Sen. Gets His Own Pork in Stimulus

clipped from emptywheel.firedoglake.com I explained yesterday how the people who crafted the crappy Senate compromise bill were, to a significant degree, Republicans. Republicans who won't even vote for the bill. But I forgot to credit the guy who really put the stupid in this bill: Johnny Isakson. Isakson is the former realtor who threw a huge sop to his realtor buddies into the bill, one that does little to actually stimulate the economy (aside from realtors, who after all got us into this mess), and which costs more than promised. The amendment, a $15,000 credit for those buying new or existing homes, will basically encourage more people to move houses--but will not necessarily incent new home building (because it applies to existing homes) nor will it encourage new buyers who would otherwise not have bought (because it's for all buyers, not just first-time buyers).

Further in the post we learn:

Dean Baker, more succinctly, simply calls it the House Flipping Subsidy. And oh, by the way, it costs $30 billion more than Isakson originally claimed it would cost. The amendment is still in the "compromise bill" (the cowardly Senate voted it through on a voice vote), and Isakson is not about to vote for the final bill.

See, Republicans know that this is going to pass no matter what they do, so they feel free to load it up with honest-to-goodness pork amendments, then vote against it and claim to be standing up to liberal spending.

This is called "having your cake and eating it too."

Or hypocrisy.