After two denials, Ryan confesses request for Obama stimulus money
The Daily Mail reports,
Paul Ryan, the Republican vice-presidential candidate, has admitted that he sought millions of dollars in federal government economic stimulus cash after twice denying he had done so.
The embarrassing reversal was the first major campaign trail mistake made by the Wisconsin congressman and came as a new poll showed that he had put his home state into play for Mitt Romney, who is now leading President Barack Obama there.
Ryan said that he had forgotten that his office had sent letters, which were signed by him, to the US Energy and Labour departments asking for money from the stimulus programme on behalf of two Wisconsin companies. . . .
Federal records show that one of the two companies, the non-profit Wisconsin Energy Conservation Corporation, later raked in $20.3 million from the Energy Department to help homes and businesses improve energy efficiency.
Ryan is not alone among big-talking conservatives who tapped the federal handouts against their own principles:
Georgia’s Republican senators, Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, for example, blasted the bill as a bloated government giveaway yet asked then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates to steer $50 million in stimulus money to a constituent’s bio-energy project.