Last week the President came to Capitol Hill and briefed us on a bill that would supposedly “prime the pump” of our failing economy and create 3 million jobs.  The bill would cost $819 billon dollars.
 
With that kind of claim and with that kind of price tag, many Members of Congress, myself included, decided to look at the “stimulus” bill and confirm whether or not it actually is a “stimulus” or a potential drag on our economy.
 
We were told the bill will create jobs through spending heavily on infrastructure projects.
 
But if that were true, why was only 5% of the bill devoted to true infrastructure projects, like roads, highways and bridges?
 
95% of this bill goes for items other than infrastructure.  Did you know that?
 
Likewise, we were told the stimulus will create 3 million jobs and the cost of creating these jobs would average out to be $210,000 per person.
 
But wait a minute… the current median household income in America is $50,000.
 
In other words, if this bill passes, the government is going to spend four times as much money than the private sector would to create jobs.
 
Doesn’t it make more sense to let the private sector keep the money and create their own jobs rather than send it to Washington to be redistributed at four times the cost to taxpayers?
 
And then there is the President’s claim that the stimulus plan would only fund projects that are currently in the hopper and ready to be implemented immediately.
 
Really?
 
Then explain how 62% of the discretionary funds in this plan aren’t slated to be spent until 2011… two years from now.
 
The stimulus bill is anything but a stimulus bill.  It is a heavy rock of debt tied around our necks and the necks of our kids and grandkids.
 
Did you know that this bill that places $2,700 in debt on every man, woman and child in our country?  It is estimated that our annual deficit will be $1.2 trillion this year BEFORE the stimulus goes into effect.  We’re going to add another $819 billion to that?
 
Let’s get back to basics.
 
Money needs to get back in the hands of taxpayers and businesses where the economy grows and jobs are created.  Let’s cut taxes by 5% across the board.
 
Let’s increase the Child Tax Credit from $1,000 to $5,000.
 
Nearly 30 million taxpayers will be unfairly hit by the Alternative Minimum Tax.  Let’s repeal it permanently.
 
I think that all IRA withdrawals should be tax and penalty free for 2009.  The purpose of these accounts are to encourage saving so that you can take care of yourself and your family during retirement.  In this environment, the government should not punish you for doing just that.
 
Let small businesses – which employ over half of our country’s workforce – deduct up to 20% of their overall income from their taxes.  Cut our corporate tax rate – one of the highest in the world – from 35% to 25%.  If businesses have more capital to invest in growth, the jobs will follow.
 
I was in Congress when passed the Balanced Budget Act in 1997.  We can’t continue borrowing money from foreign countries only to increase the size and control of our government.   Let’s balance the budget and use the money that would be spent on the stimulus to pay down our debt.  How much longer can we expect other nations to foot the bill for our unwise spending?
 
It’s the government’s responsibility to be good stewards of your tax dollars, and this plan doesn’t do it.  We can’t just throw money at a problem and expect it to go away.  Common sense solutions that will help you and grow the economy are what we need.  We need to get back to basics.