"Son of Stimulus"

In the past year and a half, Congress has devoted nearly two trillion dollars on a failed economic stimulus package and bailouts for huge financial firms, along with ownership in two car companies. In addition, the Democratic leadership has further increased spending in all of the annual government funding bills to the tune of 16.8 percent over the past two years. These astronomical spending increases don’t include the proposed $1.2 trillion cost for a government takeover of health care or the $800 billion price tag for a job-killing cap and trade bill.

I have opposed all of this legislation, not because I believe Congress should do nothing, but because I believe the misplaced priorities of Congress have resulted in too much debt, fewer jobs, and bigger government that the public doesn’t want and can’t afford.

And just when you thought the federal government had borrowed and spent its way into more debt than imaginable, yet another “stimulus” package is coming our way, courtesy of Speaker Nancy Pelosi. This legislation pumps billions into the very same programs included in the original stimulus legislation, where in many cases, very little of the money from the first bill has even been spent. The first “stimulus” certainly hasn’t been successful in creating jobs. The President said the first package would keep unemployment below 8 percent, but today we are at 10 percent unemployment.

Furthermore, each dollar spent in this package will have to be borrowed, adding $150 billion in new debt. The Democrat leadership is transferring unspent or returned TARP bailout money to this new stimulus package, but that money is supposed to go toward debt reduction.

Many American families are struggling with paying their bills every day, while the Democrats in Congress continue to spend their tax dollars with reckless abandon. Ultimately, these same families will have to foot the bill for this runaway spending in the form of tax increases or more debt placed on their children and grandchildren. You can wrap it in shiny paper and promises, and even put a bow on top, but underneath this “Son of Stimulus” is still a package that repeats the same failures of the first stimulus and adds billions of dollars in new debt.