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The “stimulus plan” is stuffed full of sluggish, ineffective spending

Congresswoman Virginia Foxx

It’s stimulus time again.  Congress just passed an $825 billion so-called “stimulus plan”.  This plan could be more aptly named the “borrow and spend plan”.  One reason I opposed this legislation is that every additional dollar spent on federal programs and pork-barrel projects is borrowed money that must be paid back—the equivalent of borrowing $10,520 from every family in America. 

Instead of new debt and sluggish government spending Congress should have passed a bill that aggressively cuts taxes for America’s hard-working families and small businesses.  I supported just such a plan, “The Economic Recovery and Middle-Class Tax Relief Act” (H.R. 470). 

H.R. 470 gives substantial tax cuts to every tax-paying family, including an increase in the child tax credit, reductions in income tax rates, expanded education-related tax deductions, and a permanent repeal of the complex and punitive Alternative Minimum Tax.  It also helps employers put people back to work with a permanent extension of the research and development tax credit, and a simplification of the capital gains and business taxes. 

According to the director of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), cutting federal taxes is the fastest way Congress can get our economy growing—as opposed to the massive expansion of government in the borrow and spend plan that Democrats in Congress rushed to enact.  Sadly, only a quarter of that plan is dedicated to tax cuts. 

The CBO also found that only 7 percent of the spending section of the “stimulus plan” will be spent in fiscal year 2009 and less than half—38 percent—will be spent in the first two years.  This is appalling.  America was told that this plan must be passed immediately to get the economy growing, yet most of the spending won’t occur until after the economy is projected to recover. 

Haven’t we heard this before?  That’s right.  The megabank bailout plan that shoveled $700 billion in taxpayer money into banks with zero oversight and accountability was rushed through Congress in a panic.  As a result we are still dealing with the fallout from the hastily-assembled bailout legislation.  Act in haste, repent in leisure.

Based on the lessons of just a few months ago, Congress should have painstakingly crafted a plan that effectively and quickly stimulates the economy.  Instead Democrats in Congress once again rammed through a plan that is stuffed full of ineffective spending that plunges us deeper into debt. 

Here are just a couple of examples of the non-stimulative spending: the plan spends $54 billion on programs that the government Office of Management and Budget has labeled “ineffective” or “results not demonstrated”.  The plan also pumps money into programs that don’t need it.  For instance, it includes $7.7 billion for the General Services Administration to spend on federal buildings, even though the GSA currently has $3.3 billion in surplus funds.  Folks, this is the definition of a pork fest. 

Congress should take action to help hard-pressed Americans get back to work and on their feet.  But if we take the wrong action (misdirected and wasteful spending) we only shackle the nation with another $825 billion in debt.  Not to mention that this spending will ultimately cost taxpayers $1.1 trillion when interest payments are factored in.

There is a time and a place to discuss the merits of additional funding for federal programs.  In the meantime, putting a pile of new and expansive government spending into a bill that is supposed to help the economy is very misguided. 

Getting money back into the economy and into the hands of families and small businesses quickly should be the goal.  A plan that gives priority to middle class tax cuts over pork-barrel and earmark spending would have been just the ticket.  Unfortunately the “stimulus plan” forgot that the only thing that slow and inefficient government spending will stimulate is the national debt. 

U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx represents the Fifth Congressional District of North Carolina.  She currently serves on the House Committee on Rules.  You may contact her office toll free at 1-866-677-8968 or e-mail her from her website, www.foxx.house.gov.