Sen. George LeMieux Wins Our GOP Hypocrite Award for his Galactic Duplicity in Funding NASA Programs

George LeMieux

Welcome back to GOP Hypocrite of the Week.

On Tax Day 2010, President Obama outlined a plan to save the federal government money by privatizing and cutting parts of an enormously expensive federal program. One would think Republicans would be overjoyed by such news. But remember, they aren't allowed to approve of anything Obama does, no matter how closely it hews to the GOP party line.

But Sen. George LeMieux has a second horse in this race. See, Obama is cutting the Constellation Program, an impractical effort to put American astronauts on the moon again. And LeMieux is the Republican senator for Florida, so his some of his constituents just might lose their jobs.LeMieux wasted no time in joining five other Republicans to back legislation that would block Obama's proposed cuts to NASA. Then he put out a You Tube video of himself chastising Obama for the proposed cuts ahead of the president's visit to his state. You can watch it on his congressional website, or just read all the hypocritical bits below:

Without our space program, we will lose one of the most talented work forces on the planet, including thousands of specialists on the space coast...

Mr. President, adding one or two shuttle flights in not enough. Promising to consider manned missions later is not enough, either. We need a complete change of course today...

We cannot rely on the Russians to put our people in space. We cannot allow our children to grow up asking, "Why are China and India flying to the moon?" NASA needs and America deserves a space program that will advance our dreams, not extinguish them.

Aw, we almost teared up a little, imagining the poor children thinking less of us if we attempt cost-containing, feasible projects in space instead of the unrealistic goals set by the Bush Administration. But followers of LeMieux's work will find this "think of the children" meme familiar.

Indeed, as recently as Wednesday the senator published an op-ed railing against government spending, couched several times in pleas that we think about the poor children saddled with our debt. From The Hill's Congress Blog (emphasis mine):

The goal of this bill is to return sanity to government spending. The aim is to ensure that our children are not shortchanged, that we do not doom them to a life of burdensome taxes due to years of spending tethered to desire rather than revenue realities.

...it is about choosing priorities and judging how much debt to pass on to our children.

On March 29th, my wife Meike and I welcomed our fourth child into the world. And our little girl, born in the freest country in the world, now owes more than $40,000 as her share of the national debt.

LeMieux's bill would return the budget to 2007 levels. In pitching his plan to the Orlando Sentinel's editorial board, commentary writer Mike Thomas said that LeMieux promised that everything in the budget is on the proverbial chopping block (except for NASA, of course):

"Everything is on the table,'' he said, right after taking Buck Rogers off the table.

If we cut spending to 2007 levels, the next moon landing really would be on a soundstage in Area 51.

It's so predictable.

Whenever Republicans are faced with losing federal dollars in their own states, they take their cue from Winston in George Orwell's 1984, who, when confronted with the horrors of the rat mask, cried out, "Do it to Julia!"

Yet, LeMieux's obsession with the budget isn't new. He has a wildly-scrolling counter keeping tack of the national debt featured prominently on his website. Shortly after healthcare reform was signed into law he proclaimed it to be too costly for consumers and damaging to the budget.

In his short tenure as senator (Gov. Charlie Crist appointed him to fill the last year and a half of Mel Martinez' term) LeMieux pledged to not request any earmarks. Thankfully, some of his predecessor's earmarks are still on the books, so that LeMieux can take political advantage of them around election time, while still playing the role of a fiscal conservative. Neat, huh?

From his short time in Washington, George LeMieux has established a neat little pattern: Have it both ways, and when it looks like you can't, use children to make everyone else feel bad about themselves. And that's why he's our GOP Hypocrite of the Week.

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

Catch up with you soon.

***

This is George LeMieux's first GOP Hypocrite Award. Welcome to the club! You can see a list of all previous nominees here.