Westmoreland: ‘Stimulus’ merely explodes deficit

Oops, rec'd this back on 1/29 and overlooked it somehow...

U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland joined all of the House’s Georgia Republicans to oppose the $150 billion economic “stimulus” package. The measure passed 385-35, with one “present,” and now goes to the Senate, where senators have vowed to tack on even more spending.

“This legislation promises tax rebates, but it’s not a tax rebate when we’re borrowing money from China to write checks to ourselves,” Westmoreland said. “It’s difficult to vote against sending money to people, particularly at a time of economic distress, but sending out checks in a couple of months isn’t going to expand the economy, it’s just going to expand the deficit.

“We need to give businesses incentives to expand and create new jobs. We need to focus on long-term economic growth by making the Bush tax cuts permanent and lowering corporate tax rates to keep our employers competitive in the global marketplace.

“These checks aren’t going to stem the housing crisis, which is at the heart of our economic problems. This is simply a national credit card binge, and as many Americans are discovering these days, the bill eventually comes due and the results aren’t pretty. We are putting the future of our country in the hands of foreigners who buy our debt. It’s scary, it’s reckless and it’s got to stop. What happened today is a step backward from fiscal responsibility, sadly, after we’ve taken significant steps toward reducing the deficit in recent years.”