As you may know, I've been frustrated with the GOP for some time. But Michael Steele was recently elected as Chairman of the Republican National Committee.Stop the spending sprees
Republicans support fast-acting tax relief, not Democrats’ boondoggle.
By Michael Steele
During his campaign, President Obama's advisers promised an economic stimulus that would be "timely, targeted and temporary." It sounded pretty good. But now congressional Democrats are pushing something very different.
The legislation written by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is shortsighted, with potentially harmful long-term ramifications. What was supposed to be an immediate boost to our economy has morphed into yet another overreaching spending boondoggle. There's no place for things like $45 million for ATV trails and government office renovations. Yet, that's precisely the sort of unnecessary spending that Reid and Pelosi are pushing.
Perhaps that's why polls show most Americans want major changes to the stimulus bill moving through Congress. The Republican Party is listening, and ready to work with President Obama to craft legislation that would immediately create jobs.
We should first agree that with so many taxpayers struggling to pay their own bills, every dollar must help job creation. Republicans offered ideas to focus the stimulus directly on creating jobs and helping homeowners, but the Democrat leaders in Congress preferred the top-down big government approach.
In his news conference this week, the president was selling fast and hard. He clearly senses that the American people have had enough of these trillion-dollar spending sprees. As the loyal opposition, Republicans have a responsibility to call him out when he errs, and work with him when he is right.
In that spirit, let's recognize the Democrats' spending bill is a mistake. If you like government dependence, you will love the Reid-Pelosi plan that they are jamming through Congress.
Republicans have a better solution: an economic recovery plan that lets families and small businesses keep more of what they earn. By our analysis, the Republican plan would create 6.2 million jobs, twice the number created under the Democrats' plan, at half the cost. We favor fast-acting tax relief that will boost our economy and create new jobs
It's an honest and fundamental disagreement, and we stand ready to work with the president on a plan that will directly help taxpayers to make ends meet and get our economy back on track.
1 comment:
I, too, do not like the bill as it is today. Obama is trying to force something through quickly, and what he is getting is a load of Democratic pet projects rather than what we need. Pelosi needs to have a little sit down and be put in her place. (God help us if something should happen to the President and Vice President, and she takes over as second in line!)
I am far less than convinced that tax cuts will stimulate the economy, but also don't believe that the government can spend it's way out of this crisis.
I think the biggest fear that people have right now is being put out of a job, so everyone is hoarding their money. A tax cut, therefor, will just serve to increase their hoard. It will not stimulate consumer spending.
What will stimulate consumer spending is job security. Put everyone back to work, and make us feel secure in our jobs, and then the money will begin to flow again.
This is the perfect time for the government to spend money on rebuilding infrastructure - highways and bridges, for example. Not building new - that will just increase maintenance costs in the future - I'm talking about rebuilding crumbling bridges that have been neglected for years. Rebuilding those now, will not only create jobs, but *decrease* ongoing maintenance costs for years to come. Major infrastructure rebuilding projects that have been put off for years.
Replacing aging fleet vehicles would also be a good use of funds, whether it be cars, trucks, tanks, or jets. Just think how an order for 50 F-18s would stimulate the St. Louis economy.
We need to put our factories back into production, from Boeing to Chrysler to Levi Straus.
Now's a good time to invest in wind farms, since Obama's so into the "global warming" (I know, SLC, there is "no such thing"). An order for a couple thousand wind turbines from GE would sure boost their employment numbers.
Very targeted spending, at this time, is not a bad thing. As soon as everyone is back to work, then we look at tax cuts and decreasing spending and the deficit.
And they can't frigin get out of the home mortgage industry that got us into this whole mess in the first place! Don't make it easier to get loans! Make it harder to get loans so we don't have people with $50k jobs and $400k mortgages. That's just asking for trouble. If they want to help out in that regard, force the mortgage companies to restructure loans when a customer has a loss in income, so that it doesn't force them out of their homes.
I could go on, but I'll stop here for now.
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