Are Republicans Leaning Towards a Shadow Government?

Eric Cantor

It has been reported that top House Republicans are setting up "a stimulus-watch program".  


"This program will allow watchdog groups and private citizens to track how contractors and agencies are spending the stimulus funds on roads, schools, renewable energy projects and other initiatives," said House GOP Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia. 

Eric Cantor is the last person that should talk about tracking government funds, since his wife's bank received well over 200 million dollars from the federal government and the bank didn't even need the funds. So if the bank really didn't need a bailout, shouldn't the money be given back to the government?  

President Obama designed a website titled Recovery.Gov for all citizens to utilize, to give a strategic visual as to how all stimulus money is being spent. 

However, republicans aren't happy with the site and instead had their own site designed to track government spending, which I find rather interesting since they never did this when George W. Bush was president. Where was the republican tracker when Bush and Paulson, received the first 350 billion dollars in bailout funds? But now the GOP is fierce about transparency as if Obama is stealing their money?

Before George W. Bush left office his younger brother Jeb Bush, suggested in an interview with Newsmax (Newsmax Media is a conservative American news media organization founded by Christopher W. Ruddy and based in West Palm Beach, Florida) that, "The republican party should not cave to a democratic majority. They should set-up a "shadow government to provide a counter agenda, and establishing a loyal opposition while addressing key issues providing the public with a loftier debate about policy rather then mere partisanship."  

I recall that there was also a "shadow" government put in place when republicans were trying to remove former President John F Kennedy from the oval office -- and we all know how that ended. Jeb Bush went on to comment that, "There is good news for republicans. The United States remains basically a center-right country."

If America is a center-right country, it's a center-right country that voted for President Obama because they sure didn't vote for Senator John McCain.....just an observation.

2009 LA