Final Stimulus Package Contains Less Tax Relief, More Spending

In late January, the Democrat Members of the House of Representatives brought forth a so-called stimulus bill with a price tag of nearly $820 billion dollars. I voted against this legislation, as did each and every other Republican Member of Congress. While our economy is certainly in need of stimulation, most economists agree that the best way to achieve this is by cutting taxes and making investments in our infrastructure -including our armed forces. Even President Obama has stated: "Tax cuts targeted to working families are the most effective means of stimulus that we can provide to the economy." Yet, the Pelosi-Reid stimulus was short on tax relief, short on infrastructure investment, and very heavy on liberal special interest projects that cost hundreds of billions of dollars.

Remarkably, when the Senate considered its own stimulus package, they initially added over $100 billion more dollars, pushing the bill close to one trillion dollars. Ultimately the Senate passed a "compromise" bill, but it still spent $838 billion dollars. Some of the projects included in this monstrosity of a bill include: money for the Smithsonian Institution and the National Endowment for the Arts, digital television conversion coupons, tax breaks for Hollywood movie studios, smoking cessation activities, hybrid vehicles for government employees, funding for ACORN and a program to screen and prevent sexually transmitted diseases. This legislation isn't a road map for recovery - it's a recipe for disaster.

Late last week a conference committee comprised of leaders from both the House and the Senate brought forth a compromise. While the overall level of spending was reduced, it still spends $789 billion dollars. To put things in perspective, $789 billion dollars is more money than we have spent in five years of war in Iraq. $789 billion is more than we have spent in Afghanistan. $789 billion dollars is nearly as much as the total of all the current United States currency circulating worldwide. And much of what is included in this legislation is simply new spending - spending that will not take place soon enough to assist those at home on America's main street. Rather, this spending bill creates some 30 new federal agencies and grows government to its largest size ever. To add insult to injury, the two items that could actually stimulate our economy - tax relief and infrastructure spending - were cut by over $75 billion. So while the overall cost of the legislation went down, spending on wasteful and unnecessary projects went up.

The path we are on is dangerously unsustainable. The amount of spending and the rate at which it is being spent is unprecedented. Our new President and his Democrat allies in the Congress have taken an enormous gamble with the future of our country. Last November the American voters sent a clear message that they wanted change. Somehow I doubt this was what they had in mind.

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