Ryan's Request for Stimulus Dollars

Ryan's Request for Stimulus Dollars:
There's a controversy over what Paul Ryan knew about requests for stimulus from his office, and when he knew it:

Paul Ryan Claims He Didn’t Know He Signed Letters Asking For Stimulus Funds, Think Progress: During an interview with Fox News’ Carl Cameron on Saturday, Paul Ryan tried to explain why he denied requesting stimulus funds for a local energy company in 2009 after voting against and demagoguing the Recovery Act. “My office sends tens of thousands of letters to various federal agencies. This went through what we call my case work system, where it was treated as a case work request for a constituent,” Ryan said. “It wasn’t my intention to send letters supporting the stimulus” ...

But the letters — at least five in total — are all signed by Ryan in different ways, suggesting that he or an aide hand-signed the documents. “Recovery Act” is also prominently written in the very first line...

I just want to note that this isn't the first time this controversy has come up, and there's no doubt that Romney's office knew about the letters requesting stimulus. And in the past, unlike now, Ryan's office said the intention was, in fact, to send the letters because Ryan "does not believe flawed policy should get in the way of doing his job and providing a legitimate constituent service to his employers."
This is from February 16, 2010:

Ryan supported some stimulus spending, by Don Walker, Journal Sentinel: Republicans in Congress have attacked the Democratic-sponsored $787 million economic-stimulus plan, but that hasn't stopped them from trying to get a piece of the action.

Today's Wall Street Journal has a story about a dozen or so Republicans who supported stimulus-funding requests submitted to various federal agencies.

One of those Republicans is U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who has labeled the stimulus a "wasteful spending spree."

Using the Freedom of Information Act, the Wall Street Journal obtained letters from some Republicans supporting funding proposals.

In Ryan's case, he wrote a letter to the Department of Labor in support for a grant application that was submitted for an Energy Training Partnership Grant.

Ryan, who is traveling in the Middle East, could not be reached for comment. But a spokesman provided this statement: "If Congressman Ryan is asked to help a Wisconsin entity applying for existing Federal grant funds, he does not believe flawed policy should get in the way of doing his job and providing a legitimate constituent service to his employers."

As it happens, the grant application was rejected, the spokesman said.

So it wasn't a mistake as he claims, the spokesman from his office says it was an attempt to get a piece of the pie.
I find it hard to believe that nobody from his office mentioned this to Ryan, nobody asked him about it, etc.


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