And now for something completely different...

So I'm about to respond again to Ryan when my e-mail dings. And what do I find in there?



February 11, 2009


Dear Jambo:

Thank you for expressing your opposition to the economic stimulus bill being developed by Congress and the Obama Administration.

I voted against the stimulus bill when it passed the House on January 28. The House version of the bill would provide $275 billion in tax cuts and $550 billion in spending increases. The bill would not add $825 billion in new money to the economy. The Treasury would borrow the money by selling Treasury securities to investors, who would take the money out of other investments to loan it to the U.S. government.

This $825 billion in debt would be added to the $700 billion financial industry bailout that Congress approved at President Bush's request, the Treasury Department's $200 billion bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the $110 billion bailout of insurance company AIG by the Treasury and the Federal Reserve, the Treasury's reinterpretation of tax law that gave $140 billion in new tax breaks for healthy banks to buy failing banks, and various other bailouts by Treasury, Federal Reserve, and FDIC.

All of this recent debt will be added to the $5 trillion that the Bush Administration borrowed to run the government for the past eight years. More than $2 trillion of the Bush debt was borrowed from foreign governments and foreign investors. Another $1.5 trillion was borrowed from the Social Security and Medicare trust funds during the Bush presidency. The national debt is now more than $10.7 billion, with more than $2.4 billion borrowed from Social Security funds that are needed to pay future benefits and more than $3 billion owed to foreign governments and other foreign investors.

At some point, we have to demand that the borrowing and spending stop. I have always believed that if a government program is worth doing, then it is worth paying for. If Presidents and Congresses doubt that the American people would be willing to pay for their proposals, then those programs probably are not urgent national priorities.

I do understand that the American people are facing a very difficult economic crisis. The federal government should be able to borrow during times of war or economic difficulty, but the deficit spending should be targeted to urgent needs and the deficits should be temporary. Any stimulus or other deficit program should include a plan to repay the money once the economy has improved.

The tax breaks in the House stimulus bill include $185 billion for individuals and families and a total of $90 billion in business tax cuts, energy tax incentives, and tax subsidies for state and local government bonds.

Most of the spending in the House stimulus bill would add funds to existing programs and provide funds to the states so that they do not have to raise taxes or cut services. The bill does not earmark funds for specific projects, but instead relies on formulas to distribute the money around the country and within each state.

The House bill would provide $90 billion for transportation and other infrastructure projects, $100 billion in education funds, $97 billion to prevent cuts in state Medicaid programs, $63 billion in other health care funding, $50 billion in unemployment, job training, and other benefits, $70 billion for energy efficiency and technology projects, and $80 billion in other aid to state governments.

The Senate shuffled the money around before passing its version of the stimulus bill on February 10. The Senate bill's total cost of $838 billion is even higher than the House bill. The Senate reduced the amount of funding to states and school districts, but more than offset those cuts by increasing the amount of tax cuts.

Members of the House and Senate have formed a conference committee to try to resolve the differences between the two versions. In my opinion, the Senate bill is even worse than the House bill. A compromise between the House, Senate, and Obama Administration will not address my fundamental concern that it is irresponsible to borrow more than $800 billion, so I intend to vote against the final version of the bill.

Thank you again for sharing your views. If I can be of any further assistance to you, please do not hesitate to ask.

Sincerely,



GENE TAYLOR
Member of Congress
GT:JP