Stimulus Package
Floor Speech
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Mr. BARRASSO. Well, Mr. President, that is my biggest concern. I make a point of getting home to Wyoming every weekend. I have been to Wyoming just last weekend and the weekend before that and the weekend before that and this is what the people of Wyoming want to know. Is this money going to be well spent? Are they going to get value for their taxpayer dollars?
Similar to the other Members of this body, I have not yet seen a copy of the final proposal. But I think the answer, from what I see of the little snippets, is the value is not there for taxpayers. In today's Investor's Business Daily there is a front-page story, and the headline is ``Stimulus Bill Funds Programs Deemed `Ineffective' by OMB''--the Office of Management and Budget. Stimulus bill funds programs deemed ineffective.
Well, if they are going to be ineffective at stimulating the economy, my question is: Why are they in a stimulus bill? The people at home get it right. This past Saturday I was at a Boys & Girls Clubs function. We had 700 people trying to help our Positive Place For Kids in the community, and many of them talked to me about this and said: We want to help. We want a program that will succeed. We need a program that will help our Nation and will help our economy. But they say, every dollar you put into this that is not really targeted and timely--and then, of course, temporary--every dollar that is spent that is not stimulating the economy is an extra dollar we or our kids or our grandkids are going to owe to people from around the world--owe to the Chinese, owe to others--and that is not the way to have a strong economy for our Nation.
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I wonder if I might ask the Senator, he has been especially effective as a spokesman for the importance of fixing housing first. Many of us, especially on this side, believe housing got us into this mess and helping housing restart will get us out of the mess. Can you explain why there seems to be, in a nearly $1 trillion bill, so little focus on housing?
Mr. BARRASSO. Well, I think they did not focus where they should have put the focus, which is where we got into the problem in the first place and that was housing. I believe this body said unanimously we need to fix housing first, and we put in a significant amount of money: a $15,000 tax credit, tax relief for people who buy a house, to get the economy moving in the area that got us into the problem in the first place. Then--while we have not seen the bill yet--that has been stripped away, I understand, in this new compromise between the House and the Senate, and they have taken billions out of it, to a very small number, where it is $8,000 for certain, limited numbers of first-time home buyers.
So there is a significant decrease in dealing with housing. But there is money in for all sorts of other things that will not effectively help our economy, and that is what I have trouble with. I am looking for something I can support, can vote for. President Clinton's economic adviser, Alice Rivlin, said there should be something much smaller, something that is targeted at the problem. Because, to me, this seems rushed. We are making rushed judgments on energy, education, health care that, to me, do not belong in a stimulus package. We should be focused on what got us into the problem in the first place. That, to me, is housing.
So we can go on about other problems I see with this legislation. People all say to me: Hey, how are you going to judge success? I say: Well, the American people are going to judge success. They will be the ones to decide whether this will be a successful program. If people believe things are working and the Government is working for them, then terrific. But if the people of America feel the burden of this whole package--the burden is on them with inflation, with increased taxes, with less buying power, with more Government rules--well, then, the people of America will judge this to not be a successful package.
But whether it is throwing water on a fire or breaking the piggy bank, the people of Wyoming think of this as we are using so much money, we are shooting all our bullets at once, and we are not going to have any ammunition left over if we have to come after this again.
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