Boehner: Dems May Scramble, but Can they Defend Wasteful Porkulus?

From Matt's Congressman, Minority Leader, and a Great American, John Boehner:

uly 10, 2009 | House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) | Permalink

Vice President Joe Biden traveled to Ohio yesterday in the Washington Democrats’ latest attempt to defend their trillion-dollar “stimulus” spending plan that isn’t working. But like the rest of the nation, Ohio knows that the Administration’s promises that unemployment would stay below eight percent and jobs would be created “immediately” by the “stimulus” have fallen completely flat. Nationwide, the unemployment rate has risen to 9.5 percent, and in Ohio, it’s more than 10 percent, leaving families and small businesses in Ohio and across the nation to ask, “Where are the jobs?” That’s a question House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) asked as well after the Vice President’s visit. The Washington Post reports:

“Boehner told reporters that Obama’s policies will ‘destroy jobs rather than create jobs.’”

“‘Our nation’s economy has taken a beating,’ he said. ‘The answer isn’t more taxes, more spending, more mandates, and more borrowing from China, the Middle East, our kids, and grandkids.’”

“In an earlier statement…the House leader said the administration’s effort ‘clearly isn’t working.’ He added, ‘The people of Ohio -- like people all over America -- have a right to know: Where are the jobs?’”

Boehner also warned that the agenda Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is pushing through Congress this summer is going to make matters even worse for small businesses. Democrats’ top two priorities – a new national energy tax that will hit small businesses and families, and a government takeover of health care that includes a new small business tax and oppressive government mandates on employers – will further cripple small businesses and stifle job creation instead of helping the economy recover.

For Americans wondering where the jobs are, it’s worthwhile to take a closer look at five significant flaws with the Democrats’ trillion-dollar “stimulus” spending bill:

HELPING GOVERNMENT – NOT SMALL BUSINESSES:

The most significant flaw of the “stimulus” is its entire premise. Government spending – the core of the Democrats’ plan – is not the foundation of job creation in America. Small businesses are. House Republicans offered a plan to let them and families keep more of what they earn, but Democrats ignored it, took a go-it-alone approach, and passed their trillion-dollar big government plan anyway. Specifically, the “stimulus” plan:

* Dedicates $95 billion to 33 new programs; and
* Expands 73 existing programs, at a cost of $92 billion.

To maintain these inflated funding levels in future years, non-defense discretionary budgets will have to increase by at least 42 percent every single year.

PROMISES MADE, PROMISES NOT KEPT:

When Democrats passed the trillion-dollar “stimulus,” they promised unemployment would not rise above eight percent and that it would create jobs immediately. Five months later, unemployment has spiked to 9.5 percent, with President Obama admitting that he expects it to reach 10 percent later this year. Making it all the more puzzling that the President told ABC News that when it comes to the economy, “there’s nothing that we would have done differently.” But with the economy still struggling, they’ve changed their tune, with Vice President Biden now saying, “It’s supposed to take 18 months.” So which is it?

TAXPAYER DOLLARS WASTED AT EVERY TURN:

The President claimed that the stimulus “contains an unprecedented level of transparency and accountability” and went on to say that there was, “[n]ot a single pet project. Not a single earmark.” But Vice President admitted just over a month that “Some people are being scammed already.” Here are a few examples:

* Funding for Speaker Pelosi’s salt marsh mouse in the San Francisco area;
* $18 million to redesign a five-month old “stimulus” website;
* Money for an Airport for No One in Rep. John Murtha’s (D-PA) district; and
* Funds for a bridge in Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey’s (D-WI) district that carries about 260 cars per day, many to a place called “Rusty’s Backwater Saloon.”

RACKING UP MASSIVE AND UNPRECEDENTED DEBT:

The massive “stimulus,” which costs much more than $1 trillion with interest payments, is adding to our staggering and dangerous debt. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released jaw-dropping deficit numbers that: “The federal budget deficit was $1.1 trillion for the first nine months of fiscal year 2009, CBO estimates, more than $800 billion greater than the deficit recorded through June 2008.” And who will pay the price for this rising debt? Our children and grandchildren, of course.

STIMULUS FUNDS HAVE NOT GONE OUT QUICKLY, REACHED THE HARDEST HIT AREAS:

McClatchy News reports that, “Only about a tenth of the money has been spent so far, and only about half of it will have been spent by October 2010.” And according to USA Today, a “report ... by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) ... says many states aren’t meeting some goals and requirements of the economic recovery program. Some states, for example, are not sending transportation funding to the most economically distressed areas, and they are using education funds to prevent layoffs rather than fund innovative new programs, the report says.” The Associated Press concurs, noting, “[T]he GAO said about half the money set aside for road and bridge repairs is being used to repave highways, rather than building new infrastructure. And state officials aren’t steering the money toward counties that need jobs the most, auditors found.”