The American People Deserve Better (Rep. John Boehner)

This is a time of economic crisis in America.  Jobs are being destroyed, and families are struggling to make ends meet. Bipartisan action is required in Washington to help put our economy on the path to recovery.

Today the House voted on the Congressional Democrats’ so-called “stimulus” bill – estimated by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office to cost more than $1.1 trillion when all is said and done. Despite President Obama’s request to have a bipartisan bill, Congressional Democrats wrote a partisan bill, shutting alternative viewpoints out of the process. This hurts the American people.

The result was a plan that is too costly, offers too much slow-moving government spending, and too little in fast-acting tax relief.

The Congressional Democrats’ plan is chock-full of dubious spending that has nothing to do with protecting and creating jobs. It includes:

• $650 million: digital TV coupons
• $600 million: new cars for the federal government
• $6 billion: colleges/universities – many which have billion dollar endowments.
• $50 million: National Endowment of the Arts.
• $44 million: Department of Agriculture headquarters.
• $335 million: education on sexually transmitted diseases.

And don’t forget the $4.19 billion pot of money for “neighborhood stabilization activities” such as ACORN –- an organization which has been accused of perpetrating voter registration fraud numerous times in the last several elections and is reportedly under federal investigation.

Expenditures of this sort have no place in a bill that is supposed to be focused on immediate job creation for the American people. We can’t borrow and spend our way back to prosperity, and to pile billions of dollars in additional debt on our children and grandchildren to finance such spending is simply unacceptable.

At the beginning of this Congress, when I handed the gavel to Speaker Pelosi, I pledged to the American people that Republicans would be the party of better solutions and not just be the party of “no.” In that spirit, Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Rep. David Camp (R-Mich.) offered a Republican substitute on the floor today that would create twice as many jobs at half the cost. The Camp-Cantor plan will create 6.2 million new American jobs over the next two years, according to a methodology used by President Obama’s own nominee as Chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisors, Dr. Christina Romer.

Our proposal is rooted in the belief that fast-acting tax relief, rather than slow-moving and wasteful government spending, is the most effective way to protect and create jobs and help put our economy back on track. It provides relief to those who need it most: middle-class families, job seekers, small businesses owners, the self-employed, entrepreneurs, and homebuyers -– all with the goal of letting them keep more of what they earn and helping our economy create good-paying, long-lasting jobs.

The American people deserve a better solution. The House Republicans will continue to work with President Obama to refocus this plan on immediate job creation and tax relief to save and create American jobs and get our economy moving again.