WASHINGTON – Following her vote against the $819 billion economic stimulus package, U.S. Representative Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., issued this statement:

“The economy is in a downturn, and is in need of help – we are all feeling that reality. However, I believe this economic stimulus package will not deliver the shot in the arm we are looking for. We cannot borrow and spend our way back to economic prosperity.

“The stimulus package provides enough spending to give every man, woman and child in America $2,700, but will cost each and every household an additional $6,700 in debt.

“Huge amounts of government spending have never been an effective tool for economic recovery. It has been tried here and around the world before, and it has always been found wanting.

“This bill, meant to stimulate our economy, has among other crazy things, money for the National Endowment for the Arts, the 2010 census, and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases. This is not stimulus – it is a bridge to bankruptcy – and it is not how tax dollars should be spent.

“That is why I have cosponsored alternative measures that cut taxes and give individuals and small business back the money they’ve earned. This is a true stimulus for the economy.

“The bill I support, the ‘Economic Recovery and Middle-Class Relief Act of 2009’ would cut income taxes 5 percent across the board, and permanently lower the capital gains, as well as repeal the alternative minimum tax.

“It would also include a 1 percent across-the-board budget cut for everything but defense and veterans – a first step in the right direction of true fiscal discipline.

“While there are a variety of programs in the President’s stimulus package that I could support on their own merits, I hope to consider them in next year’s budget, and not in a stimulus free-for-all, like the one being considered in Congress now.”