Paul Ryan has record of pushing for and earmarking federal funds for his district [View all]

[TomCADem]

Source: Washington Post

Five months ago, Rep. Paul Ryan reached out to the Transportation Department, urging that it look favorably upon his home town’s request for $3.8 million, which would help build a new city transit center.

It was the same center that four years ago received $735,000 in federal funds through an earmark that Ryan (R-Wis.) had secured.

Over his 13 years in Congress, Ryan has often used the powers of his office to seek federal funds for his district, sometimes from existing pools of money and other times in ways that would increase federal spending. His success has meant funding for projects including a runway extension at a local airport and an environmental study of the Kenosha Harbor.

There is nothing improper or even unusual about what Ryan has done — in fact, it is the essence of what many congressmen do and what many of their constituents expect. But it complicates the image that Ryan, and now Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, have sought to project of a man who is single-mindedly focused on sharply cutting the federal budget and erasing the nation’s deficit.


Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ryan-has-record-of-pushing-for-and-earmarking-federal-funds-for-his-district/2012/08/17/92c099dc-e874-11e1-936a-b801f1abab19_story.html

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I guess it should be no big surprise that Ryan's image does not square with the earmark requesting reality.