Debunking Stimulus Myth: Only 3% Allotted for Road, Bridge Infrastructure Spending
By Jeff Poor
Business & Media Institute
You’ve heard it here, there and everywhere in the news media – the time is now for a big-government economic stimulus package, not only to revive the economy, but to salvage America’s crumbling infrastructure.
That’s one of the selling points used over and over again by pundits, as they are paraded out repeatedly on broadcast and cable network news programs – that so-called “shovel-ready” projects will challenge economic woes by revitalizing something we need to do anyway. But only 3 percent of the Obama stimulus plan is slated for such projects.
[...]
“Again, what you see in Democrat bill is 14 years of pent-up demand to increase the size, scope, power and expense of the federal government,” Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, said to BMI. “What are they are doing within this bill, which they parade under the title of ‘stimulus,’ is fund 150 different federal programs – 32 brand-new programs, 19 programs which OMB [Office of Management and Budget] has labeled as ineffective or shown no results.”
In a conference call on Jan. 23, House Minority Whip Rep. Eric Cantor and Hensarling pointed out some of the more egregious spending provisions in the House Democrat proposal:
* For every dollar that is spent for small business tax relief, $4 are being spent for the maintenance and new grass in Washington, D.C.
* $360 million for sexually transmitted disease education
* $50 million for the National Endowment of Arts
* $726 million for an afterschool snack program
* Office furniture for the public health service
* More money for Amtrak
“How any of this fits under the banner of economic stimulus is beyond me,” Hensarling said. “I think it would prove to be beyond the American people as well.” (more…)
=======
If the Republican party would have stuck to their guns in the area of fiscal responsibility, they would not have been resorted to just sitting on the sidelines. In any event, this bill is more of the same from the last 8 years.
Sphere: Related Content
