$825
Billion: Too Little, Too Late
The economy is the biggest issue
facing Eastern Washington families, farmers and small businesses.
Americans are concerned about keeping their jobs, their homes and they
want Congress to act.
The U.S. House did act today and spent $825 billion
dollars on a stimulus bill. Despite many good and positive aspects of
the legislation, I was not able to support today’s bill.
It is once again too little, too late.
- Too little,
because only five percent of the program builds roads and highways.
- Too late because most
of the package will not take effect until 2010 or
later.
Further,
this bill still contains too many pork barrel earmarks and wasteful
government spending.
Pouring more gas into a broken car isn’t going to get
us anywhere, except to the poorhouse. Despite earlier bailouts
and rescues, home prices have plummeted and banks are asking for more
money.
I don’t support the idea of on-going government programs that
just keep growing and growing, which today’s bill
fuels.
Instead, we need to
invest in infrastructure now – roads, highways, transit, energy
generation, exploration and transmission – real innovation and
construction that will create jobs. We need to build something
of lasting value and stop when we’re done. We need to
invest in American energy independence, help home buyers and help relieve
the tax burden on all tax payers.
