American Recovery And Reinvestment Act Of 2009

Floor Speech

American Recovery And Reinvestment Act Of 2009

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Mr. McCONNELL. I am going to proceed for a few moments on my leader time.

Evidently, the President had a meeting with House and Senate Democratic leadership last night, impressing upon them, obviously, the urgency of approving a stimulus bill that actually works. But I think it is safe to say that the version House Democrats approved last week certainly does not meet that test. Most of the infrastructure projections it includes would not impact the economy for at least a year.

I was recently talking to my Governor, and he indicated basically that the spend-outs were in year 2 and 3 in much of this, thereby kind of illustrating my point that in terms of immediate impact, it is quite deficient. Worse still, permanent spending--or what we call, inside the Beltway, ``entitlement spending''--is actually increased by $200 billion.

The President has talked on a number of occasions--I know I have spoken with him about it--about my willingness to work with him on a bipartisan basis to get entitlements or permanent spending under control. We know it is going to ruin our country in the near future. This bill, in the name of stimulus, actually increases permanent spending, entitlement spending, by $200 billion, making an already incredibly difficult problem worse. As everybody--almost everybody--is now fully aware, the House bill was, of course, additionally loaded with wasteful spending. Unfortunately, the version Senate Democrats put forth is not a whole lot better.

President Obama said 75 percent of the bill's discretionary projects should be paid for within 2 years. Yet more than half of the spending in the Senate version would not be spent until after 2 years. President Obama said 40 percent of the bill should be tax relief. Yet less than one-third of the spending in the Senate version would go to tax relief. And like the House bill, the spending portion in the Senate version is simply way too big. The spending portion is way too big. If you include the interest payments on all of this money we are purportedly about to spend, the Senate Democratic bill is nearly $1.3 trillion. So I cannot imagine President Obama is terribly pleased with the proposal Democrats in the House or the Senate have put forward at this point. I am hoping he convinced them last night that it is time to put forth, together, a bill that gives an immediate jolt to the economy and creates jobs right now, not a bill that increases permanent spending, not a bill that spends out in years 3 and 4. A stimulus package ought to do something right now to stimulate the economy.

President Obama has acknowledged that Senate Republicans have a number of good ideas that he would like to incorporate into the final bill. So has the senior Senator from New York. Republicans will be pursuing these ideas this week, and how they would help President Obama achieve his goal for the stimulus bill. We Republicans think we can send the President a simpler, more targeted stimulus bill that gets right at the root of our current economic troubles, that does not waste money we do not have on projects that do not create jobs now.

Most people recognize that housing is at the root of the current economic downturn, so we would fix this problem before we do anything else. Republicans believe that one way to do that is to provide a Government-backed, 30-year fixed mortgage at approximately 4 percent to any creditworthy borrower. That would reduce monthly mortgage payments and increase demand for homes. According to this proposal, the average family would see its monthly mortgage payment drop by over $400 a month. That comes out to over $5,000 a year. Over the life of a 30-year loan, that is a savings of over $150,000. That is a proposal to get right at the housing problem now.

Next, in order to get money into the economy quickly, Republicans propose that we cut income tax rates for working Americans right now. The Federal Government imposes a 10-percent tax on married couples for incomes up to $16,700. By cutting that rate in half, we put $500 into the pockets of every working family and give an immediate jolt to the country. Incomes between $16,700 and $67,900 are taxed at 15 percent. Republicans would cut that rate to 10 percent, putting another $1,100 into the pockets of working couples. And single filers would get similar rate reductions. In other words, everyone who works and pays income taxes would see an immediate increase in pay. This simpler, targeted plan gets at the root of the problem, which is housing. It puts money into people's pockets immediately.

President Obama asked Congress to put together a bill without wasteful
spending that creates jobs now. We Republicans believe we have better ideas for doing both. We look forward to having the chance to explain these ideas this week to the American people through our amendments, and we look forward to having votes on those amendments in the hope that many of them will pass.

I yield the floor.

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