As federal lawmakers inch closer to inking a more than trillion dollar stimulus package, one GOP state lawmaker is rallying support from his legislative colleagues to urge Congress not to overload the package with pork.
Sen. Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch, introduced a resolution today which would ask legislators in Washington to amend the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and restrain themselves from spending taxpayer dollars on projects that don't directly stimulate the economy.
"This stimulus package is little more than a pork-laden earmark," Harvey said. "They want to dump over a trillion dollars on projects that won't help average Americans struggling in this financial crisis. What this does more successfully than anything else is grow the government."
The U.S. House has already approved H.R. 1--without any Republican support--and the Senate is expected to vote on the measure this week. President Barack Obama is pressuring Congress to pass the bill by the end of next.
Harvey's resolution outlines several programs that stand to recieve multimillion to billions of federal dollars from the stimulus package. Harvey says many of the programs indicate how much of the package is lavish and unnecesary.
Included in the package is $600 million for the federal government to buy new cars, $7 billion for the modernization of federal buildings, $200 million for grass replacement on the National Mall, and $4 billion for a Neighborhood Stabilization Program. The Neighbor Stabilization Program gives money to state and local governments to purchase foreclosed properties that, according the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, "might otherwise become sources of abandonment and blight within their communities."
"These projects are wasting taxpayer dollars, all in an effort to make Washington look good," Harvey said.
Upon hearing news that Gov. Bill Ritter is attending a luxury retreat in Virgina to lobby for the passage of the package, Harvey led an effort this morning on the Senate floor to gather signatures on a letter urging Ritter to reconsider his support of the package , and more importantly, his attendance to the junket.
"It is bad enough that you plan to lobby for passage of this stimulus package--whose price tag has now grown to more than $1 trillion and features millions in wasteful spending on everything from honey bee insurance to sexually transmitted disease research," the letter states. "But for you to join Congressional Democrats on this taxpayer-funded vacation at a time when millions of Americans are losing their jobs sends an even more destructive message to the people of our state."
Harvey's resolution was assigned to the Senate Committee on State, Veterans, and Military Affairs and is expected to be heard early next week.
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Republican Sen. Ted Harvey, of Highlands Ranch, introduced a resolution to urge Congress not to overload the pending stimulus package with too much pork. |
