Scripted political theater ignores the facts

It used to be said that good policy makes for good politics. This year it's better said that good policy makes for bad political theater.

Republican lawmakers spent the last year attacking Democrats over the $814 billion economic stimulus package signed into law in February 2009. Hoping to turn pro-votes into an election-year liability, critics took to the airwaves claiming the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was a boondoggle that didn't boost the economy or create a single job.

We now know they knew better - even as they played their parts with zeal.

According to an investigative report published Oct. 17 by the Center for Public Integrity, even the loudest critics quietly requested millions in federal stimulus funds based on local jobs they would create.

In Iowa, the stimulus act provided nearly $3 billion dollars for health care, education and transportation infrastructure.

But nearly everyone got a piece of the action, a fact lost on most Americans.

Included in the bill were $116 billion in tax cuts for 95 percent of workers. A recent New York Times/CBS News Poll found that fewer than one in 10 remembered this, if they knew it at all.

That's the trouble when scripted political theater takes the place of reasoned debate: It makes bad actors of elected officials who put politics first - and leaves voters confused between what is fact and fiction.

Niel Ritchie

Executive Director

League of Rural Voters

Minneapolis