Though she was more effective than the pathetic Jim DeMint in trying to justify Republican opposition to the stimulus bill, KBH got baited into outright lies by John Kerry on "Meet The Press."

SEN. KERRY:  We’ve had eight years of a, of, of, of this experiment of massive tax cuts without investing in America’s future, and the result is we have gone from fourth in broadband to 17th in the world.  The fact is our transportation system is neglected, you can’t move products from here to there as effectively as other places.  We waste countless hours of American productivity on roads that are clogged with traffic because we don’t invest in mass transit…

…

SEN. HUTCHISON: I disagree with Senator Kerry.  On the last eight years we have increased spending.  We’ve increasing–increased spending on military, certainly the war on terror has had a lot of infrastructure and buying of equipment for the war on terror.  We haven’t neglected our highways [note: NBC’s transcript wrong].  The Highway Trust Fund has increased exponentially.

Yeah, spending a trillion dollars in Iraq has been just awesome for US infrastructure.

America’s roads, public transit and aviation have gotten worse in the past four years. Water and sewage systems are dreadful. The basic physical backbone of American society is barely above failing, a report by top engineers says. 

And about that exponentially-increased Highway Trust Fund…

U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said the nation’s highway trust fund will run out of money this month, which means that federal payments to states for construction projects could be cut.

Even after 8 years of the Bush era, I’m still amazed at Republicans’ willingness to go on national television and say up is down.