A Raw Deal for American Families

The Democrats’ trillion dollar spending bill provides $1.10 per day in tax relief to workers, while saddling every American family with $9,400.00 in added debt.

Following are some very tentative quick facts on the trillion-dollar “stimulus” spending deal slated to be rushed through the House and Senate today or tomorrow by Congressional Democrats, as compiled by the Office of House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH). These are based on best estimates on legislative text and scoring and may be subject to revision. Keep in mind that the Democrats haven’t actually released the actual text yet.

1. Generational Theft. The final agreement will cost each and every household more than $9,400 in additional debt (including interest on the bill), paid for by our children and grandchildren.
2. Paltry Tax Relief for Working Families and Small Businesses. The “Making Work Pay” tax credit at the center of the plan amounts to $1.10 a day, not even enough to ride the bus one-way to work.
3. Massive Government Expansion. The final agreement is almost as much as the annual discretionary budget for the entire federal government.
4. A Trillion-Dollar Spending Bill. The $789.5 billion final agreement slated for a House vote either today or tomorrow will exceed more than $1 trillion when adding in the interest of approximately $300 billion between 2009-2019.
5. Unnecessary Spending That Won’t Create Jobs. Apparently included in the final “jobs” bill is money for plug-in vehicles, money for STD prevention, and money for ACORN (via the Neighborhood Stabilization Program and CDBG program). The final agreement also creates new programs and funds existing programs that can be used to fund earmarks and pork-barrel projects.
6. The bill contains enough spending - $789.5 billion – to give every man, woman and child in America $2,600. $789.5 billion is enough to give every person in Ohio more than $68,000.
7. Supporters of the bill say it saves or creates 3.67 million new jobs. But, the data they are circulating shows only 3.46 million – that’s 210,000 fewer than their talking points claim, 500,000 fewer than President Obama promised, and a staggering 2.74 million fewer than the 6.2 million jobs that would be created by the House GOP alternative.
8. The bill creates 31 new programs totaling $97 billion (31% of all appropriations) and expands 73 programs by $92 billion which are part of the regular appropriations process, not “stimulative spending.”
9. Almost one-third of the so called “tax relief” in the bill is spending in disguise, meaning that true tax relief makes up only 26% of the total package – a far cry from the 40 percent that President Obama had requested.
10. A provision tucked in the bill will further increase government involvement in health care by putting bureaucrats – not doctors - in charge of health care choices for families and seniors.