January 28 – What was supposed to be a targeted plan to stimulate the economy has ballooned into an $825 billion Democrat spending bill for programs that may or may not provide a boost to the nation’s economy or create new jobs. Congressman Zach Wamp released the following statement about his opposition to the Democrats’ spending bill:

“Tennessee families and local and state governments are cutting their budgets to get through hard economic times, yet Washington is spending more money than you can imagine. We’re in a real mess right now with too much government, but no one is talking about streamlining it, they’re just spending more money.”

“That’s why I’m not voting for the Democrats’ spending bill. Not because I don’t want to jump start the economy to get things moving again to create revenue and jobs that employ people, but because this has turned into a massive social spending bill. Some of the stimulus is needed, such as infrastructure and energy technologies, but most of it is a transfer of payments from taxpayers to social programs. A true stimulus bill would create new jobs in the short term instead of spending billions of taxpayer dollars on new government programs that will take years to impact the economy and adding a mountain of new debt. The debt and the deficit are huge long-term problems that will make the recession longer. Japan is an example of how you can’t borrow your way out of debt or spend your way into prosperity.”

“While the Republican Party spent too much money in the past and lost its way on holding down the growth of government, the agenda of the Democrat leadership is an even worse approach. There was a Republican proposal in the House that I supported, which focused on tax relief for small businesses, entrepreneurs and families that would create twice as many jobs at a fraction of the cost.”