What Are Your Feelings on the President's Jobs Bill?

Statement

There are areas where we can work together such as implementing the three free-trade agreements and lowering corporate tax rates. However, the President's bill would cost nearly $450 billion and the devil is in the details -- namely how are we going to pay for it?

According to the White House, in order to pay for this stimulus-lite plan, the President's legislation includes an estimated $467 billion in permanent tax increases. Many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle share my belief that increasing taxes to pay for this bill is out of the question.

About 31 months ago, the Obama Administration pledged to Americans that under his $800 billion stimulus package, unemployment would not exceed 8 percent; that 90 percent of the jobs created by the "stimulus' would be private sector jobs; and, that jobs would be created "immediately.'

None of those promises panned out. Here in Illinois, nearly one out of every ten of our neighbors is unemployed (9.9 percent) and nationwide unemployment is above nine percent. Now the President is asking for a second stimulus because the first was not big enough.

These broken promises speak to a much bigger problem, and that is a government arrogant enough to think it can simply spend, borrow and tax our nation back to prosperity and job growth.

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