If you’ve been watching Fox News’ Sean Hannity recently, GOP Rep. Aaron Schock's comments on WIND yesterday may sound all too familiar. Listen:
SCHOCK: [L]et’s not forget the stimulus package had quote-unquote no earmarks in it either. And I don’t think anyone would argue that the trillion dollars spent in that bill was any more responsible or less politicized. I mean you had $9 billion in there for Harry Reid’s train in his district, you had the money for the mouse in Nancy Pelosi’s district. I mean, you had a lot of pet projects in there. But when you control the White House and Congress you don’t have to write it in in the form of an earmark because you control the whole process.
Hannity -- along with numerous other media figures -- has incessantly repeated this claim that the stimulus bill includes multi-million-dollar earmarks to save the “salt harvest mouse” in Pelosi’s district and build a high-speed rail line in Reid’s. Now Schock is giving him an assist in keeping the talking point alive. Nevermind that Michael Steel, the spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) who first circulated the mouse claim, has admitted that “[t]here is not specific language in the legislation for this project.”
Media Matters, which has been tracking this falsehood for weeks now, has more:
After writing that "there isn't any such money in the bill" for the mouse, The Plum Line blogger Greg Sargent reported on February 12 that the "marsh harvest mouse" claim originated in an email from a "House Republican leadership staffer" who, when contacted by Sargent, "conceded that the claim by conservative media that the mouse money is currently in the bill is a misstatement." San Jose Mercury News staff writer Paul Rogers subsequently reported on February 13 that Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), originated the claim and said that "[t]here is no language in the bill that says this money will go to this project."
Moreover, Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace has said that the claim that the bill had funding to protect the mouse has been "supposedly ... debunked."
The debunking of the mouse claim has been backed up by the nonpartisan website Politifact.com, an arm of the St. Petersburg Times.
Meanwhile, Schock's claim about the high-speed rail line in Reid's district is also bunk. Once again, Media Matters explains:
[T]he bill does not direct high-speed rail funds to any specific high-speed rail project. Furthermore, any funding would be allocated by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a former Republican congressman.
The bill states that $8 billion shall remain available for the "Secretary of Transportation" for "projects that support the development of intercity high speed rail service" and that the secretary shall "submit to the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations a strategic plan that describes how the Secretary will use the funding provided under this heading to improve and deploy high speed passenger rail systems." The Joint Explanatory Statement of the Conference Report on H.R. 1 further states of the high-speed rail program: "The conferees have provided the Secretary flexibility in allocating resources between the programs to advance the goal of deploying intercity high speed rail systems in the United States."
As noted above, Chris Wallace -- host of Fox News Sunday -- has pushed back against such claims. Which leads us to wonder: Will Schock repeat them when he appears on Wallace's program this weekend? Or does he just reserve these types of falsehoods for local conservative radio?
Comments
Randall Sherman (not verified) on Sun, 03/08/2009 - 00:53
It would appear to me that Congressbaby Schock is beginning to realize that if Illinois loses a seat in the House after the 2010 Census, it will likely be his. If that seems likely by Labor Day, he will have only two options open to him, neither of them good.
The first is to run for statewide executive office in 2010. The alternative is to challenge a more senior Congressman in 2012, perhaps fellow Republican Timothy Johnson in the 2012 Republican Primary. in order to make either option viable, Schock needs to increase his political viability on the right.
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