Stimulus Two-Year Anniversary

Floor Speech

Mr. MCCONNELL. Mr. President, two years ago today, at a moment of deep economic uncertainty, the President signed a bill that he said would put us back on track. It was a plan, he said, that would ``save or create'' up to 4 million jobs over 2 years--a figure that he called his bottom line for success, a plan that was supposed to drive unemployment below 7 percent by now. And it was predicated on the notion that government spending--spending borrowed money on government programs--was the recipe for a rebound; a plan that said if we ``invest'' in government, we will get out of this mess.

We were told the bill included record investments. And then we learned what the administration means by ``investment:'' a plant database project; a multimillion dollar facelift for the Sunset Strip; a study of the mating decisions of female cactus bugs; hundreds of millions of dollars to a solar panel company that was supposed to double its workforce but ended up cutting jobs instead; massive bailouts to the States; turtle tunnels. Senators get the drift.

Within a year of its passage, the so-called stimulus bill had become a national punchline.

Nearly a trillion dollars was added to the debt as a result of this bill in the name of investing in our future. And in the 2 years since it was signed, we have lost millions of jobs.

And now they want to do it again. They are back for more.

Just as amazing is the fact that the same people who touted this bill now refuse to cut government spending. We learn about another wasteful stimulus project just about every day, and they say they can't find a dime's worth of government spending to cut?

It defies common sense.

I mean, if we can't cut a turtle tunnel when the country is $14 trillion in the hole, we have problems. It is time to turn over the credit card.

The bottom line here is that 2 years after the President told us he was investing in our future, here is what we have to show for it: higher unemployment than they predicted and trillions more in debt.

The fact is, dangerously high debt has actually slowed the recovery, making it harder to create private sector jobs.

So in my view this second debate was over before it started.

Massive government investment of borrowed taxpayer money as a tool for economic growth has been a failure.

END

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