Congressman Fleming Votes No On Stimulus Plan

Congressman John Fleming voted no today on the Economic Stimulus Bill (H.R. 1) filed by Democratic leadership in the House.

"This bill is not about creating jobs and stabilizing a hurting economy; it is a wasteful spending bill to fund very liberal social programs and will saddle our grandchildren and great grandchildren with a huge national debt," said Congressman Fleming. "The American people are suffering and are asking us for real and immediate solutions. Instead, Democratic leadership has offered a spending bill that doesn't do the right thing to get our country back on the road to recovery."

This bill includes:

A $7 billion dollar tax increase
Tax relief for people who currently don't pay income taxes
$600 million to buy new cars for government workers
Funding for social programs that liberals have not been able to pay for in the past and have nothing to do with job creation
$1 billion of CDBG money and $750 million of Neighborhood Revitalization funding - ACORN would be eligible to receive funding under both
$50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts
$3 billion for prevention and wellness programs for the Center for Disease Control, including a transgender beauty pageant in San Francisco that advertises available HIV testing
$600 million to prepare for "universal health care"
$726 million for an after school snack program

Congressman Fleming is a co-sponsor of the more responsible Economic Recovery and Middle-Class Tax Relief Act of 2009 (H.R. 470). This bill supports families through tax relief, provides economic relief for American businesses and entrepreneurs and saves future generations from a crushing debt burden.

This bill would reduce the lowest individual tax rates from 15% to 10% and from 10% to 5%. In the 4th Congressional District of Louisiana, 198,703 filers would benefit from the reduction in the 10% bracket and 137,314 filers would benefit from the reduction in the 15% and the 10% brackets.

H.R. 470 would also allow small businesses to take a tax deduction equal to 20% of their income. In Louisiana, there are 373,489 small businesses with 500 or fewer employees. That represents 97.5% of the state's employers.

Congressman John Fleming represents Louisiana's 4th Congressional District and is a member of the House Armed Services Committee and Natural Resources Committee.

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