He's a laugh a minute....

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http://www.mcclatchydc.com/254/story/65314.html


Biden credits stimulus for fire station funded under Bush

By Mark Johnson | Raleigh News & Observer
PIKEVILLE, N.C.  Vice President Joe Biden brought a clear message to this tiny
Eastern North Carolina town Wednesday: The federal recovery money isn't just
for big banks and auto companies.

Biden and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced a new wave of
$10.4 billion in federal stimulus money for home loans across the country, and
billions more for essential services in rural communities such as Pikeville,
which is getting money for a new fire station. Biden used the outdated, current
station as a backdrop. Pikeville is just north of Goldsboro in Wayne County.

"We're investing in places like this all across the country,"
Biden said, "to
demonstrate the vital role towns like this play in the recovery."

Most of the money for the station that was announced Wednesday, however, had
been secured last year under the Bush administration, according to fire
department officials.

State Sen. David Rouzer, a Republican who represents Pikeville and worked in
the Agriculture Department under President Bush, said he helped secure the fire
department money last year out of the federal agency's regular programs.

"They're coming in and cherry picking the best projects and switching out the
money, saying it's stimulus money," Rouzer said. "But it was
already approved
and in the pipeline. It's totally disingenuous to come down here and say this
is stimulus money, when regardless of whether a stimulus bill passed, they were
getting the money."

The Obama administration is working to draw attention to money for rural
communities, where gravel roads and volunteer fire departments are the norm.
The moves come as irritation and anger are rising over federal money that has
been streaming to Wall Street, banks and car companies.

Biden and Vilsack talked Wednesday about grants that are being parceled out for
water systems, police stations, hospitals and fire stations. Earlier in the
day, they visited Goshen Medical Center in Faison, where $635,000 in federal
money will help hire two doctors, two nurses and three administrative workers.

Pikeville, where nearly all residents live below the poverty line, will receive
$150,000 in grants and a $1 million loan toward the $1.3 million cost of the
new fire station, said Fire Chief Wesley Wooten.

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