Five Flip Flops: Castle Now Says Stimulus Not Enough, is for Job Creation after he voted against it

Filed in National by on January 29, 2010

In February 2009, Mike Castle voted with his party and against Delaware in opposing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

And almost immediately afterwards, the hyprocrisy show began. In May, Mike Castle celebrated the restoration of the Wilmington Train Station, paid for by stimulus funds. Then, in early July 2009, Mike Castle was taking credit for AMTRACK project funded by stimulus money. And here is Mike Castle helping present a nice big stimulus check that he voted against:

That was for an announcement by Gov. Markell of waste water project funded by the Stimulus.

And now, Mike Castle is saying that the stimulus did not go far enough!!! So, first it was too much, then it was just right, and now it is not enough. Castle wants Delaware and the Northeast to get money for high speed rail just like Florida, the South, and the West did, and he is angry the stimulus funds did not provide for such projects here in the First State.

“These are our tax dollars, and while I don’t agree that this [stimulus] funding has been successful in its stated goal of long-term job creation, I will not sit by while our money goes to other states,” Castle said.

How interesting. Mike Castle is now interested in job creation. Tell me then, why did he vote against the jobs bill in December?

[Castle] opposed this second stimulus for the same reasons he opposed the first $787 billion stimulus package in February. “We cannot spend our way back to economic prosperity,” Castle said in a statement. […] The jobs bill is designed to steer money from a financial bailout program to infrastructure projects and job-creation and job-preservation efforts while extending unemployment benefits and subsidies for COBRA insurance for laid-off workers.

So, let’s review. Mike Castle is and was against stimulus spending. But he happily takes credit for stimulus projects, and indeed demands more funds for rail projects in Delaware and the Northeast. Mike Castle votes against a jobs bill, but then complains that we aren’t doing enough to create jobs.

{Count Dracula voice} One, Two, Three, Four, Five! Five Flip Flops. {end Count Dracula voice}

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  1. He’s also for and against health care reform, I got a letter about this yesterday from him.

  2. anon says:

    He is “Congressman However.”

  3. fightingbluehen says:

    Yeah Castle is a politician so whats new. How about that major flip flop with the terrorist trials in New York. In the end i think everyone knew that wasn’t going to happen. I love the way they are saying that Obama is asking the AG’s office to try and find a new venue.As if the AG is acting alone without marching orders.You have to laugh at that one.

  4. Coolcat says:

    Who the f is de2010.com?

  5. anon says:

    How interesting. Mike Castle is now interested in job creation. Tell me then, why did he vote against the jobs bill in December?

    Because in Castle-world, job spending destroys jobs. Jobs can only be created by more tax cuts for the rich, despite all evidence to the contrary.

  6. Mike Castle: I vote against things I support

    OR

    Hi, I’m Mike Castle, I support a little bit of stuff, just not a whole lot.

  7. PBaumbach says:

    Mike Castle–a moderate that Delawareans can trust, except when the Republican Party needs his vote

  8. skippertee says:

    He should just keep the ball-gag in his mouth 24/7 except to orally copulate his dark,republican masters.

  9. a.price says:

    is matt denn standing 6 feet behind Castle, or is he really that short? he’s like a fun size lutgov.

  10. anon says:

    No, it’s just that industry lobbyists have pumped Castle full of artificial growth hormone to keep him alive.

  11. Joanne Christian says:

    You complain because the man wants to sift the wheat from the chaff in spending? REAL jobs that can be directly attributed to stimulus monies i.e. a new or improved rail system to this state vs. just having stimulus money to say a job was “saved”. You guys are going to have to do better than that. I too, want accountability for the jobs brought to Delaware, and not all these vain imaginings of what job was saved in Delaware because of stimulus money. That line gets real thin, and everyone manages to have a “jobs saved” column to make themselves look good–when we all now it’s window dressing for the jobs lost, and nothing new brought in. Sorry, but I prefer to look deeper than a parsing of words before criticizing this decision. And be prepared to hold up that mirror to your intended incumbent favorites, seeking other offices.

  12. anon says:

    Joanne – I and most liberals (I think) will agree with you that the first stimulus package, while necessary, was too diffuse and did not focus enough on jobs. The only sector currently in recovery is the sector that caused the meltdown (banks). That is why we support a new jobs bill as well as new taxes and regulations on banks.

    Instead of stupid opposition, Republicans would do better to use their filibuster to insist on making the new jobs bill accountable for producing jobs. This liberal would actually support such a filibuster, as long as some Repubs voted for the bill after job accountability was added to it.

  13. Geezer says:

    “is matt denn standing 6 feet behind Castle, or is he really that short?”

    He’s really that short. So is Chris Coons, for that matter. But since Delaware has so little television, it won’t matter as much as it would in a media-saturated state.

  14. Delaware Dem says:

    LOL, Geezer. Castle is a very tall man, 6’5″ or more, and Denn is a short man, probably at 5’6″ or less.

  15. cassandra_m says:

    You complain because the man wants to sift the wheat from the chaff in spending?

    Actually, that’s not what Castle is doing here. He is just complaining that the Northeast did not get enough of the transportation stimulus funds that he voted against. There’s no rationale presented that there is some wheat here but the California project is somehow chaff.

    If the awards made here say anything is that this part of the stimulus to jump start high spread rail wasn’t enough, either, and what is there is spread too thin.