NorthWest Florida Republican

The Stimulus Bill H.R. 1 was passed through both the Senate and House. Here is how our Congressmen voted.

On the original House Bill both Congressman Jeff Miller(R) and Congressman Allen Boyd(D) voted “No” on the Bill. Yet when the version passed the Senate, Congressman Allen Boyd changed his vote to “Yes” on the final passage. Congressman Jeff Miller stuck to his guns and kept with the “No” vote.

Congressman Allen Boyd explains his vote:

“I voted against the original stimulus bill in the House because I knew that we could do better and develop a stimulus bill that was smarter and includes provisions that will truly stimulate and strengthen our economy,” said Congressman Boyd. “While the final stimulus bill isn’t perfect, it’s a better bill, and it’s only better because many of us, including myself, were firm in our calls to cut the extra, unstimulative spending and put the focus on provisions that are temporary, targeted, and timely.”

All the while he claims to be a conservative Democrat. Where is the conservatism? This bill is laden with pork. It does little to help you and me but quite a bit to help large companies. The claim that it will reduce your taxes is misleading as many people already pay little to no taxes as it is. Job creation will be years down the road if at all.

The stimulative provisions advocated by Congressman Boyd include:

* Transportation infrastructure investments to improve roads, bridges, flood control, clean water projects, and other infrastructure projects
* Education infrastructure for school modernization, renovation, and repair
* Grants to states for job training and workforce development
* Critical Investments in rural communities such as broadband services and wastewater projects

While these projects might seem like a great idea many don’t belong in a “Stimulus” package as they will not do anything anytime soon.

A better stimulus package would have been government spending on actual products such as vehicles and buildings. Grants to small businesses and start ups.

Where is the conservatism in this Bill? All the complaints by Democrats during the Bush administration about deficits seem to have completely gone out the window and the money tree is being stripped of all of its leaves. The deficit is sure to be more than Bush ever ran up and probably will double or triple just in President Obama’s current term alone.

I would like to make a prediction. A year from now, no one will be able to tell exactly where the money went.