(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colorado) today voted against the Democrat-sponsored spending package known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The price tag for the bill is $825 billion.

 

“The American people are hurting and our economy is in a recession,” Coffman said. “We simply can’t prop up the economy through wastefully spending money we don’t have and can’t repay in any reasonable timeframe.”

 

According to Republican Whip Eric Cantor’s office, the spending package will cost each person in Colorado’s Sixth Congressional District over $2,700.

 

According to the Congressional Budget Office, only $26 billion, or 7%, of the House bill's $355 billion in new spending would actually be spent in the current fiscal year. Around one-third of the new appropriations would be spent by the end of 2010.

 

Coffman concluded, “The American people deserve better than this pork-laden spending frenzy masquerading as a ‘stimulus package’.”

 

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