Given your interest in the state of our economy, I wanted to let you know that last week marked the one year anniversary of the so-called stimulus package, an ill-conceived, budget busting package of federal spending proposed by President Obama that I vigorously opposed. One year after its passage, it’s clear the bill has failed to result in any meaningful job creation but has significantly increased our already alarming national debt, which will have severe long term economic consequences for our nation. The Administration promised last year that the nearly one trillion dollars in spending would keep unemployment from reaching eight percent; yet since it became law, over three million people across our nation have lost their jobs and the national unemployment rate is nearly ten percent. What we already knew has become even clearer – we cannot spend and borrow our way back to prosperity.

Unfortunately, the Obama Administration and Congressional Democrats have not listened to the American people and continue to offer the same big government answers that have done nothing to lift us out of our economic downturn. Along with other House Republicans, I have consistently supported solutions that would put our economy back on the right track without burying our children in more debt. We need to restore fiscal discipline in Washington and dramatically lower the tax and regulatory burden to allow small businesses, the backbone of our economy, to create jobs and get our economy growing again.