Dreier: Americans Need Jobs, Not More Government

Press Release

Dreier: Americans Need Jobs, Not More Government

Congressman David Dreier (R-San Dimas, CA), Rules Committee Ranking Republican, voted against a massive increase in government spending today and vowed to continue fighting for policies that will help working families and small business weather the current economic storm. Dreier opposed the conference report accompanying H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which passed the House 246-183, with one member voting present.

"Our economy has stalled and action must be taken to get it back on track. On this fact, President Obama and I agree wholeheartedly," Dreier said. "Unfortunately, the bill Congress voted on today does not focus enough on working families or provide adequate relief for small businesses. Instead, it will dramatically expand government and the national debt, costing every American household $9,400 in new debt. In contrast, the bill I fought for would have reduced the tax burden on working Americans in the lowest income tax brackets, allowing them to keep and spend more of their hard-earned money, and given small businesses the ability to deduct 20 percent of their expenses. An analysis of the two bills shows that the plan I supported would have created 267,000 more jobs in California, at half the cost to the federal treasury."

The bill also fails to adequately address the housing crisis that is causing so much economic hardship for so many families. Congressman Dreier fought for a provision that would have given responsible home-buyers who make a five percent down payment a $7,500 tax credit. It was not included in this bill. Dreier said the bill's failure to address the rising number of foreclosures was also unfortunate.

Dreier said H.R. 1 also fell short on aid to California. Although California represents twelve percent of the U.S. population, only six percent of the funding contained in H.R. 1 would be sent back to the state. In spite of promises that the focus of spending in the bill would be on needed infrastructure projects, the bill spends only five percent of its funding on transportation infrastructure.

"The fact is, this package is not what California needs," Dreier said. "There may be some money for transportation projects, but the funding is miniscule in comparison to the scale of the bill. If it were serious about helping economically stimulative transportation projects come to fruition, it wouldn't spend millions of dollars buying electric golf carts for government employees. We had a real opportunity to work together in a bipartisan way to get our economy back on track, but this bill went in a different direction. I will continue fighting to get working families the relief they need to get through these challenging times."

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