At least Kansas has representation in the Senate

The following is an email I received from Senator Sam Brownback's (R-KS) office:

We wanted to take a moment to write to you to tell you about the events that unfolded in Washington late last week regarding the Democrat's stimulus package. Senator Brownback voted against Senate passage of the stimulus package.

You can hear audio of Brownback's Senate floor statement regarding the stimulus bill by clicking here or by visiting the web site.

This is what Brownback had to say about the bill: "I voted against the stimulus bill because a huge increase in government spending is not the answer our economy needs. There are some good provisions in this bill, but not nearly enough to outweigh the overwhelming bad. This stimulus package threatens to be the beginning of our next bubble – a big-government bubble, where we try to use debt and leverage to spend our way into prosperity. We are considering an amount of spending that, even when adjusted for inflation, far outstrips the New Deal, the Louisiana Purchase, the Marshal Plan or the Moon Race."

The stimulus package, passed by both the House and Senate, has a $787 billion price tag. It is the single biggest increase in the deficit in American history. The bill increased the debt limit to an all-time high of $12 trillion, and represents 5.5% of the GDP.

"The hastily constructed bill being labeled as stimulus is not a good plan to help our economy weather the recession. It is a highly leveraged, speculative bet on larger government and massive long-term spending as a cure for our economic troubles. This is the largest spending bill ever and it's been done in the most rushed fashion I've ever seen. In conference, the bad parts of the bill got bigger and the good parts got smaller."

"In the history of the Republic, the largest stimulus package we've had was 1.5% of GDP; this bill is over 5.5% of GDP, although most of this bill isn't stimulus, it's simply big-government spending. There is only $76 billion in actual stimulative tax cuts in this bill, out of $787 billion; less than 10% of this bill offers true stimulative tax cuts. With this spending plan we are using a speculative bet on government, using our children's future as leverage."

If you have any questions or comments about the Stimulus Bill, please feel free to call one of our offices listed below and voice your opinion.