Chambliss and Isakson Are BuzzFlash's GOP Hypocrites of the Week for About-Face on Government Stimulus and Defense Spending

Sens. Saxby Chambliss & Johnny Isakson (R-GA)

After years of pointing out conservative hypocrisy, sometimes BuzzFlash still needs a little help, especially when it comes to the economy. This week, we're tipping our hat to the honorable Paul Krugman.

On ABC's This Week, The New York Times' resident Nobel prize-winning economist tittered at the hypocrisy of Republicans who decried imaginary budget cuts eliminating jobs after spending the past few months saying government spending is incapable of creating or maintaining jobs. Watch:

In particular, Think Progress singles out the two Republican senators from Georgia, Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson. Both were strongly opposed to the economic stimulus, declaring the inability of the federal government to encourage job growth. Yet, they say government cuts in production of the F-22 (aka, the "Raptor") would eliminate jobs.

Thing is, logic isn't important to these (and other) Republicans. Of course, some of this is merely Republicans being the faithless opposition; it's more important for conservatives to be anti-Obama than pro-anything else these days. But also, as George Will points out just before Krugman makes his astute observation, these defense contractors structure projects so that they affect the highest number of congressional districts as possible. And -- surprise, surprise -- Georgians get a lot of jobs from the production of the F-22!

Besides being hypocritical, these politicians are also just wrong. Military correspondent David Axe says that "ending Raptor production today might not result in a single unemployed aerospace worker."

In fact, the Defense Department changes might create more jobs. Remember what we said about the cuts being imaginary? Well, it's true: The Defense Department's budget actually increased by 4 percent, though you wouldn't know it from the conservative uproar or alarmist media reports. As Jon Stewart pointedly asked, "On what planet is a four percent spending increase a huge cut?

Planet Hypocrisy, apparently.

According to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, between now and 2011, the cuts in F-22 productions will slash about 13,000 jobs, but the increase in F-35 production will add 44,000 jobs by that same year.

Furthermore, Republicans that are desperate to keep the F-22s make it sound like our troops are being deprived of important tools for fighting terrorists. While we're not military experts, the F-22s have not been used in either Iraq or Afghanistan, making this argument less than persuasive to us.

Now -- to be fair -- there are many congressional Republicans who are guilty of the same hypocrisy as Chambliss and Isakson. But these two made it so easy for us to single them out, issuing a joint press release about the supposed budget cuts. We'll leave you with two lies and a threat from that release:

This administration is... willing to sacrifice the lives of American military men and women for the sake of domestic programs favored by President Obama.
^-Chambliss

It is unacceptable that this administration wants to eliminate 2,000 jobs in Marietta and potentially 95,000 jobs nationwide at a time when unemployment rates are rising across the country. Senator Chambliss and I will be taking the case of the F-22 to members of Congress and the Appropriations Committees.
^-Isakson

Hah, thanks guys; we couldn't have said it better ourselves. And that is why the Georgia delegation to the U.S. Senate wins BuzzFlash's GOP Hypocrite of the Week award.

Remember our motto: So many Republican hypocrites, so little time.

Catch up with you soon.

This is the third GOP Hypocrite of the Week award for Saxby Chambliss (he also won the award in December 2008 and October 2007) and the first for Johnny Isakson. You can see a list of all previous nominees here.

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