The Stimulus Package needing little blue pills

From the Office of Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart:

Pelosi Package Misses Historic Opportunity to Modernize U.S. Infrastructure

Bill passed by House today fails to create jobs needed for Florida’s economy

Washington, DC- Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL) today voted against the Pelosi stimulus package, which passed the House of Representatives by a 244-188 vote. The $825 billion so-called stimulus bill includes $30 billion toward actual (“shovel ready”) road and highway projects, less than 4 percent of the total cost of the bill. Florida alone has nearly $7 billion worth of projects waiting for funding to break ground, and this bill, that will increase the American people’s debt by over $1 trillion, provides funding for only a small percentage of them.

In contrast, the motion to recommit, which was supported by Congressman Diaz-Balart but was defeated on the floor, would have provided an additional $24.2 billion for the Corps of Engineers and $36 billion for highways, and yet reduced the total cost of the bill by $103 billion. Infrastructure has been shown to have a strong correlation to the creation of jobs.

“The American people are looking to us for relief. Unfortunately the majority leadership has wasted an historic opportunity to create jobs by providing little in infrastructure spending compared to the overall size of the legislation. If the majority leadership was serious about creating jobs they would have focused on infrastructure spending instead of allocating funds for unrelated purposes that can be addressed in the appropriations process,” commented Diaz-Balart. “The legislation that passed the House today has been sold to the American people as an infrastructure bill that will create jobs, and that is sadly not true.”

Posted by Val Prieto at January 28, 2009 08:28 PM