HOUSE Republican Leader John Boehner

Video: Behind-the-Scenes with GOP Leaders as House Republicans Stand up for American Taxpayers

A new web video released tonight by House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) offers a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the new House Republican leadership team in action TODAY on behalf of struggling families and taxpayers as House Republicans united in opposition to Capitol Hill Democrats’ billion-dollar spending plan, and offered a better solution for economic recovery that would create twice as many jobs at half the cost.

Check out the video below:

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The American People Deserve Better than House Democrats’ Trillion-Dollar Spending Plan

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 Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) handed the gavel to Speaker Pelosi, he 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-MI) 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.

The GOP 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.

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Congressional Democrats’ So-Called “Stimulus” only Good for Government , Says Cato Scholar

Dan Mitchell of the Cato Institute explains in the video below that the Democrats’ trillion dollar, slow-moving and wasteful government spending “stimulus” plan will not be the panacea to our economic woes.   Mitchell’s comments come on the same day the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office confirmed that the plan offered by House Democrats will cost $1.1 trillion when all is said and done.

“Only in the upside-down world of Washington do people think that making government bigger is a recipe for economic growth” says Mitchell.

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New Government Programs Created by Democrats’ Trillion-Dollar “Stimulus” Spending Package

Below you will find a list of new programs contained in House Democrats’ “stimulus” spending bill:

Stimulus New Programs

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A Better Solution than the Democrats’ So-Called “Stimulus” Plan

Americans are increasingly wary of the Democrats’ “stimulus” plan.  In fact, according to a recent survey from Rasmussen Reports, “Fifty-nine percent (59%) of U.S. voters worry that Congress and President Obama will increase government spending too much in the next year or two.”

Yesterday on the NBC program “Meet the Press,” Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH), articulated the GOP’s better solution (video here):

If we allow American families to keep more of what they earn, they’re going to save it, invest it or spend it, all of which are good for the economy.  And our plan would allow American families, joint filers to keep almost $3200, up to $3200 of their money.  They can, they can help multiply the economy, get the economy moving again if the money’s in their hands.  And this is a–this is why we have Democrats and Republicans in this country, because we do look at these things differently.  They believe that all of this spending’s going to help.  Some of it on infrastructure, if you can get it out the door quick enough, will help.

The Democrats’ plan can be chalked up to “nothing much than slow-moving government spending that won’t stimulate anything but the federal government,” Leader Boehner said.

Others, in both the Congress and the media, tend to agree.  Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) has compiled a list of comments from around the country from major editorial boards, media correspondents, and even a senior Democratic official that illustrate the growing skepticism about Congressional Democrats’ trillion-dollar spending plan.  The list, courtesy of the Office of the Republican Whip:

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND):

“There Are Some Other Things That I Think We Should Be Concerned About. And That Is Those Parts Of The Package That Spend Out Beyond Two Years.” “There are some other things that I think we should be concerned about. And that is those parts of the package that spend out beyond two years. Because, you know, we need to be temporary. We need it to be timely. We need to be targeted. So we got to be concerned about things that add to the deficit and the debt beyond the two years of what we anticipate to be this downturn.” (CNN’s “State Of The Union,” 1/25/09)

USA Today: 

The Democrats’ Plan Is The “Typical Washington Christmas Tree.” “That’s no excuse, though, for turning the stimulus bill into a typical Washington Christmas tree. Lawmakers would do well to remember the Four T’s: Every provision should be timely, targeted, temporary and transparent. Congress and the White House seem to have transparency covered - both are promising full disclosure of every provision on a special website, plus careful oversight. It’s the other three T’s that seem more problematic.” (Editorial, “Our View On The Economy: Stimulus Plan Leaves Plenty Of Room For Improvement,” USA Today, 1/26/09)

Read the rest of this entry »

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GOP Leaders Request Meeting with President Tomorrow

Consistent with Leader Boehner’s pledge to work with President Obama, today Republicans on Capitol Hill sent a letter to the President requesting a meeting tomorrow to discuss Republican proposals to strengthen the economy and create new jobs.

Last week on PBS’s Newshour, Leader Boehner stated:

[W]hat we’re attempting to do is, we want to work with the new administration. There probably will be times where we can. There will be times where we will disagree. But, when we disagree, we’re not going to be the party of no.  We want to be the party of better solutions.  And I have pushed our members rather strongly that we don’t want to be out there whining, and we don’t want to be out there just being the party of no, that we have better solutions, and, if we do, let’s put them out there.

For the last several weeks, an Economic Recovery Working Group chaired by Republican Whip Eric Cantor has heard from experts and begun crafting a series of principles to present to the President.

The Congressional Democrats’ “Stimulus” Bill - now estimated to cost $825 billion, and growing - is hardly consistent with the President’s statement that a stimulus plan should “immediately jumpstart job creation and long-term growth.”

According to a recently released Congressional Budget Office report on the Congressional Democrats’ Stimulus Bill:

Only about $136 billion of the $355 billion that House leaders want to allocate to infrastructure and other so-called discretionary programs would be spent by Oct. 1, 2010. The rest would come in future years, long after the CBO and other economists predict the recession will have ended…

Of $30 billion in highway spending, less than $4 billion would occur over the next two years. Of $18.5 billion proposed for renewable energy, less than $3 billion would be spent by 2011. And of $14 billion for school construction, less than $7 billion would be spent in the first two years.

Republicans know we can’t borrow and spend our way to prosperity.

In order to support real job creation and make an immediate impact for our economy, any government “stimulus” bill must include real tax cuts and promise spending restraint.  House Republicans look forward to presenting the President with such a plan at the earliest opportunity.

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