Frivolous spending
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Congress' latest economic stimulus package. That bill passed 244-188; 11 Democrats broke ranks, while all of the voting Republicans voted against it.
I would like to commend the 11 Democrats who voted against the $819 billion "stimulus" bill. This bill is an atrocity to the congressional system of appropriations. Instead of focusing on true stimulus, the Democrats in the House packed the bill with billions of dollars of un-stimulating spending.
The following is just a fraction of the spending packed in the 647-page bill: $650 million for digital TV converters, $250 million for NASA climate research, $600 million for the government to lease plug-in and alternative-fuel vehicles, $500 million for airport security, $150 million for bridge removal by the Coast Guard, $1.7 billion for National Parks Service maintenance, $200 million to clean up leaking underground sewage storage tanks, $150 million for maintenance at the Smithsonian Institution, and $50 million for the National Cemetery Administration to make cemetery repairs.
This is all after some apportionments were removed. The Republicans urged Democrats to take out some of the unnecessary spending, such as making funds available for "family planning" and contraceptives, as well as $200 million to revitalize the National Mall.
Unfortunately, that is about all that was taken out of the bill.
Now, I am not saying that the expenditures in this bill are unimportant. Clearly airport security and wildland fire management are very important; however, Congress has an apportionment process for a reason. This bill takes the traditional apportionment process and throws it out the window.
The Democrats essentially drafted this bill telling their caucus members, "If you want money apportioned for something, stick it in this 'stimulus package' and we'll get it passed no questions asked." And that is exactly what happened.
A normal apportionment bill is debated for days, but here, the House crammed what would have been hundreds of apportionment bills into one bill and debated it on the floor for three days.
If Congress wants to spend money, that is perfectly fine, but congressional leaders should do it through the proper channels of apportionment, not by hijacking the taxpayers' wallets under the guise of an "economic stimulus package."
And where were the Republicans in all of this? They were left out until the very end. No Republican had any real input while this bill was drafted.
The only input they had was on the floor of the House during debate and when proposing amendments. Only two Republican amendments passed, neither of which spared Americans from the fiscal disaster that this bill is.
Several Republicans did take a strong stand against this bill, including Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., who submitted an amendment that would have changed the stimulus package to a pure tax-cut instead of a spending spree / tax-cut combo. Unfortunately, that substitute failed.
The fact remains - a spending spree is not what this country needs right now, and even if the Democrats insist on increasing spending, they should do it through the proper means of apportionment instead of shoving it into one big bill.
I urge senators to vote against their version of this bill, or to at least cut out some of the superfluous spending.
Nathan Inks is chairman of the College Republicans. He can be reached at n.d.inks@gmail.com.
