Washington, DC- Congressman Dan Lungren (R-CA) today cast a “no” vote for the Democrat proposed $825 billion stimulus bill which passed 244 - 188. The 647 page bill was a virtual laundry list of government programs, most of which will do nothing to stimulate the economy. The cost estimate for residents of the Third Congressional District comes to $2,700 for every man, woman and child.

“Tonight we had an opportunity to really implement vehicles that would have an immediate effect on our ailing economy but when you look at the frivolous spending in this bill, along with what it will cost my constituents, there is no way I could vote for it,” Lungren said.

Some of the programs funded in this bill were as follows:  $1 billion for Amtrak; $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts; $400 million for global-warming research; $2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects and $650 million on top of the billions already spent for digital TV conversion coupons.

“A lot of these programs have nothing to do with creating new jobs or bringing relief to families and small business. I believe if we had focused on things like tax cuts – which have been shown to have an immediate effect on our economy and accelerate the appeals processes for local “shovel ready” projects, these areas would show immediate effect,” Lungren added.

“When our economy is sinking in a sea of red ink, the only job congress has is to concentrate on economic recovery. These are difficult circumstances we face and let’s not allow the current economic situation to be an excuse to engage in a spending spree which will add to a growing mountain of debt, “Lungren concluded.