[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 20 (Monday, February 2, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E174-E175]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT ACT OF 2009

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                           HON. CLIFF STEARNS

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, January 28, 2009

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 1) making 
     supplemental appropriations for job preservation and 
     creation, infrastructure investment, energy efficiency and 
     science, assistance to the unemployed, and State and local 
     fiscal stabilization, for fiscal year ending September 30, 
     2009, and for other purposes:

  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Chair, with America facing a 7.2 percent 
unemployment rate, record low consumer confidence, and country's worst 
economic downturn since the beginning of World War II, our nation needs 
a real economic stimulus that will give tax relief to hurting American 
businesses, create long term sustainable job growth, and provide real 
permanent tax relief to American families. What this country does not 
need is the federal government increasing our national debt to record 
levels, burying our children and our grandchildren under a mountain of 
debt.
  This Democrat spending plan is simply not stimulative. According to 
CBO, the plan includes $604 billion in new spending and $212 billion in 
tax cuts for a total cost of $816 billion over the 2009 to 2019 period. 
While this plan is aimed at quickly injecting government cash into the 
economy, only 15 percent, or $93 billion, of the spending will occur 
during this fiscal year and only 37 percent of the spending would occur 
in fiscal year 2010. This means that over half of the plan's spending 
will occur starting in 2011, hardly a quick injection into the lagging 
economy as promised by the Democrat authors. What is clearly evident is 
that much of this money will not be spent in the next two years to 
stimulate the economy and that billions of dollars in pork barrel 
spending will go to constituencies important to the Democrat party. 
This is far too important of an economic time to play political games 
and return election favors in the form of government funding. Our 
country needs a real economic stimulus package.
  Included in this Democrat spending spree are longstanding liberal 
spending priorities. What does $50 million for the National Endowment 
for the Arts, $400 million for climate change research, $650 million 
for the Digital-to-Analog Converter Box Program and $1 billion for the 
Census have to do with creating jobs? The Democrat bill won't stimulate 
anything but more government and more debt. The slow and wasteful 
spending in the House Democrat bill is a disservice to millions of 
Americans who want to see this Congress take immediate action to get 
this economy moving again.
  Many have looked to our economic history to provide guidance during 
this difficult time, particularly to the New Deal instituted by 
President Franklin Roosevelt. Unfortunately, what many economists have 
found is that New Deal principles are stale ideas that do not translate 
into economic stimulus in the 21st century.
  First, the Great Depression began in 1929 and did not end until 1940. 
And the stock market did not return to the level of September 3, 1929 
until 1954. If today's economy were to go through a similar 
``recovery,'' we would not fully escape the current recession until 
2018 and the Dow would not reach its high of 2007 until sometime in 
2032.
  Secondly, many economists note that during the Great Depression the 
U.S. did not actually have much of an expansionary fiscal policy. As 
Tyler Cowen stated in the New York Times article, The New Deal Didn't 
Always Work, Either, ``under President Herbert Hoover and continuing 
with Roosevelt, the federal government increased income taxes, excise 
taxes, inheritance taxes, corporate income taxes, holding company taxes 
and `excess profits' taxes. When all of these tax increases are taken 
into account, New Deal fiscal policy didn't do much to promote 
recovery.''

  This legislation is also an unprecedented expansion of the nation's 
debt burden. The U.S. is projected to have a $1.2 trillion deficit in 
FY 2009 even without the enactment of any stimulus legislation. As a 
percentage of GDP,

[[Page E175]]

the projected FY 2009 deficit, 8.3 percent of GDP, is considerably 
larger than any deficit during the Great Depression, the highest was 
5.9 percent of GDP in 1934. The federal debt grew by more than $2 
trillion in the last two years, and may grow by another $2 trillion in 
2009.
  The year 2008 could easily be defined as the year of the bailout. The 
months have passed in a torrent of troubling government ``rescues'' of 
private sector financial firms. Those bailouts have come at a great 
price and have exposed American taxpayers to vast financial risk. And 
in a financial crisis, such as the one we are now facing, bailout after 
bailout is quite simply not a good strategy for recovery.
  The cascade of bailouts began in March of 2008 with the collapse of 
investment bank Bear Stearns. The Federal Reserve stepped in when Bear 
Stearns lost significant liquidity and lent another large investment 
firm--JPMorgan--$29 billion to buy up Bear Stearns and its liabilities. 
This was quickly followed by legislative recognition of the housing and 
foreclosure crisis and, subsequently, the Treasury's forced rescue of 
out-of-control GSEs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac which has put taxpayers 
on the hook for trillions worth of risk.
  Since October of 2008, the U.S. Treasury has committed $350 billion 
in public funds to private financial institutions, many of which have 
utilized reckless investment strategies, through the Troubled Asset 
Relief Program, TARP. Specifically, insurance giant MG has received $40 
billion, Citigroup--which just tried to spend $50 billion on a luxury 
corporate jet--has received $20 billion, an additional $20 billion has 
been given to the Federal Reserve, and $250 billion has gone to large 
national banks in the form of direct capital injections. Even more 
troubling is the $23.4 billion of these TARP funds, which has been 
allocated to bail out automobile manufacturers such as General Motors 
and Ford. This type of government intervention in the private sector is 
unprecedented and has put us on a precarious path to socialism.
  The new Secretary of the Treasury, Tim Geithner, is now poised to 
spend an additional $350 billion as part of a second installment of 
TARP funds as reports are coming out that executives such as John 
Thain, have used these funds to hand out $4 billion in bonuses to 
fellow executives, $1 million to renovate his office, and $1,400 for 
the purchase a new personal waste basket. Due to the lack of 
transparency and accountability of how the first $350 billion was 
spent, and the fact that banks have not made it easier to get loans and 
the credit markets have not thawed as expected, I voted against the 
TARP Reform and Accountability Act, H.R. 384, and in favor of a 
resolution, H.J.RES.3, disapproving of the release of these additional 
funds.
  Given the massive amount of money the federal government has spent on 
bailouts since March of 2008 along with the ever-rising debt level, it 
is unconscionable to continue committing good money after bad. This 
money belongs to the American taxpayer and now, more than ever, we must 
rein in this out-of-control government spending for our future 
generations who will have to pay back this irresponsible debt 
accumulation.
  Mr. Chair, enough is enough, turn off the government spigot of 
federal funding into non-simulative debt spending. It is time for this 
Congress to pass a real economic stimulus that will give tax relief to 
hurting American businesses, create long term sustainable job growth, 
and provide real permanent tax relief to American families.

                          ____________________