Schwarzenegger Rips Romney, GOP For Stimulus Hypocrisy

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-Calif.) accused his Republican colleagues in Washington on Sunday of blatant hypocrisy on the stimulus package -- railing against the jobs bill in public while posing for stimulus-related projects and ceremonies in their home districts.

Appearing on ABC's This Week, the moderate Republican frequent GOP scourge pointed to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in particular for arguing this past week that the stimulus bill hadn't produced a single "net" job gain.

"I find it interesting that you have a lot of the Republicans running around, and pushing back on the stimulus money and saying, 'This doesn't create any new job,'" said Schwarzenegger. "And then they go out and do the photo ops, posing with the big check and they say: 'Isn't this great, look at the kind of money I've provided for the state and this is money to create jobs, and this has created 10,000 new jobs, this has created 20,000 news jobs, and all those kinds of things.' It doesn't match up."

It's hypocrisy, said host Terry Moran. "Exactly," Schwarzenegger replied.

"I don't want to beat up on my Republican colleagues but I think it is kind of politics rather than thinking about one thing, and this is: 'How do we support the president? How do we support him and everything we can in order to go and stimulate the economy back and think about the people and not the politics?'

"Anyone that says this hasn't created a job, they should talk to the 150,000 people getting jobs in California," he added, "from the private sector and also from the public sector."

Romney, it should be noted, has already been slapped on the wrist once for the stimulus-related statement he made during his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday. The Associated Press fact-checked the speech and found his "assertions lacked context at best and at worst were flat-out wrong."

Comments

[RZoroaster]

11:07 PM on 02/22/2010

I like Arnold's attitude generally. I just wish he'd done a better job governing. I hope he sticks around in politics though, to be a counter to the teaparty wing of the republicans if nothing else.

[meanguy]

06:31 AM on 02/23/2010

so, you'd like someone who's failed as a governor to stick around? now, THAT'S what i call 'affirmative action!'

[MESGAIN26]

08:28 AM on 02/23/2010

at least he cant admit it , itsn't hypocrisy great .

[eddw88]

09:46 PM on 02/22/2010

Funny that main stream media conveniently left this article off of their site and papers.

[meanguy]

06:32 AM on 02/23/2010

they did? then i must have just IMAGINED reading about it in the Washington Post, and repeatedly online

[BoyInBOYCOTT]

08:44 PM on 02/22/2010

All you have to do is ask Romney a second or third time on ANY issue, eventually he'll take EVERY side of an issue, LGBT Rights, Choice, Immigration. NO ONE trusts him, about ANYTHING.

[madame48]

08:28 PM on 02/22/2010

Since when were Romney lies a surprise? He trashed the state that elected him governor for 2 years....

[Aaron Peeples]

08:15 PM on 02/22/2010

Darn, I was hoping he was gonna call them "girly men".

[ratmonkey1]

08:14 PM on 02/22/2010

Okay Arnold. Tonight I will watch True Lies. :-)

[OnMySoapbox]

07:53 PM on 02/22/2010

hy·poc·ri·sy

1. A pretense of having a virtuous character, moral or religious beliefs or principles, etc., that one does not really possess.

2. A republicn.

[pantherburns]

07:06 PM on 02/22/2010

Mitt Romney is an i*d*i*o*t. This man could not buy a vote from Republicans in 2008. It was obvious from the debates held that his fellow Republican contenders found his persona to be so distasteful that the one thing they agreed on was that it was a good idea to gang up on this holier than thou stuffed shirt.

[Cowboylove]

06:10 PM on 02/22/2010

The fact the stimulus bill lowered taxes on about 95% o f Americans and extended unemployment benefits for millions of the unemployed is rarely mentioned. The fact the Stimulus Bill saved thousands of teacher, firefighter and police jobs that would have been lost without aid to sates is not mentioned. The Stimulus bill, if anything, was too small, not too large.

The Republican hypocrisy on this bill is shameful. Hooray for Arnold for telling the truth!

[ratmonkey1]

08:20 PM on 02/22/2010

Great post Cowboy: Fanned.

[meanguy]

06:33 AM on 02/23/2010

i must be in that missing 5%...with my wages and my wife's wages frozen during the past year, our tax bill went up...and we're solidly in the lower end of the 'middle class'

[bwick]

07:15 AM on 02/23/2010

I agree. Arnold is one of the ONLY Republicans who has told the truth. I respect him for that.

[berrycooda]

05:49 PM on 02/22/2010

If California is in such good shape, why are they broke....

Sounds like a case of "thou doth protest too much"
Maybe by criticizing Romney, we don't see what else is going on.

All of a sudden the Repub is beginning to look like a Democrat.
Is his term ending soon.
Maybe Arnold wants to get back on the Hollywood bandwagon that
is a bunch of Bush bashers.
For some reason, he seems to be talking different than he did a few
years ago.
What kind of jobs did Calif. get anyway....Maybe producing drivers
license's for illegals.

[jdrourke]

06:02 PM on 02/22/2010

Wow, what's up with hating on California? While you're bashing on my fair state (it's 73 degrees as I write this by the way), why not consider that Hollywood still provides one of the last remaining American landmarks: the movies. Because of Hollywood and those who make films, millions of people around this great country are working today. From actors to carpenters, and prop guys to writers, this industry is still home grown - and even when movies are filmed overseas, much of the technical (and post) work is done right here in America. So look in the mirror before you dump on one of the last remaining strong industries in both California and America.

http://jdrourke.wordpress.com/

[meanguy]

06:35 AM on 02/23/2010

california is THE laboratory for 'progressive governance'...in other words, EPIC FAIL

[ratmonkey1]

08:18 PM on 02/22/2010

Come on Mr.cooda. Don't be a sore-head. You lost this one so
suck it up>

[ilikebeer]

05:46 PM on 02/22/2010

The administration needs to make sure that they have a HUGE sign at each of these events the hypocrites take credit for stating...FUNDING BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE PEOPLE OF AMERICA UNDER PRESIDENTIAL STIMULUS PLAN...

See how many hypocrites show up then..

[uniquindividual]

05:05 PM on 02/22/2010

It took he governator awhile to get the hang of the job. But once up to speed he has proven to generally be fact based in his opinions, something lacking on the right side of the room in CA - my home.

[pjgm]

04:19 PM on 02/22/2010

I don't think Arnold will pass the "purity test".

[TrooAmerican]

01:07 PM on 02/22/2010

The GOP is solely in existence as a marketing scheme for big business legislation and regulation in their favor. It often directly harms the people of the united states.

Schwarznegger is right. He may sometimes be a buffoon, but he is often being honest with the media and the GOP constantly tries to hammer him, but they know he has a huge national fan base, so they can only do so much.

[LondonTownNY]

12:43 PM on 02/22/2010

The GOP always places marketing its brand above and beyond all else. Their leadership is more concerned with creating the right sound bytes to position themselves than actually achieving progress in America.