Daily Local News: Nightmare for Our Children

Monday, February 16, 2009

'Nightmare for our children'

County's congressional delegation dissatisfied with $787 billion bill awaiting President Obama's signature

By DAN KRISTIE, Staff Writer

All three of Chester County's congressmen say they are dissatisfied with the $787 billion economic stimulus bill that cleared the House and Senate on Friday and is likely to receive President Barack Obama's signature Tuesday.

But their levels of dissatisfaction vary, with one congressman giving the bill a B-minus, another calling it a step toward socialism and a third characterizing it as a "Friday the 13th" horror.

U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach, R-6th, of West Pikeland, found symbolic significance in the day when both legislative bodies passed the bill.

"It's fitting that this bill is being rammed through the House on Friday the 13th, because it's truly a nightmare for our children and grandchildren who will be stuck paying off the mountain of debt," Gerlach said. "What started out as a process to get Americans working again degenerated into a big-government spending spree."

Gerlach said economic stimulus is important, but the bill contains too little infrastructure spending and too many tax breaks for people who do not pay income tax.

Like all House Republicans, Gerlach did not vote for the bill.

U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, D-7th, of Edgmont, gave the bill a passing — but not a stellar — grade. During a Friday afternoon conference call with reporters, he first gave the bill an A-minus, then said it deserved "potentially a B-minus."

Sestak said he would have preferred a bill with fewer tax cuts and more investment in infrastructure, education, health care, technology and the environment.

Sestak said he has seen statistical modeling that shows tax breaks add 50 cents to the gross domestic product for each dollar of government spending, while economic investments add $1.60 to the GDP for each dollar of government spending.

He said that although the bill isn't ideal and won't prevent continuing job loss, enacting it is much better than doing nothing.

Sestak said the legislation will help retain more jobs than would have been retained without a stimulus bill and will help the economy rebound quicker than it otherwise would have.

"The bill will not turn around the economy by itself by any means," Sestak said. "But it's still crucial."

U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts, R-16th, of East Marlborough, said the bill would "do little to help the economy in the short term and may end up doing harm in the long term."

Pitts said the legislation contains outrageously high spending and is likely to grow the welfare rolls and push the country toward socialized medicine.

"One of the provisions that is of great concern to me is $1.1 billion to conduct 'comparative effectiveness research' to evaluate the effectiveness of different preventative health care interventions," Pitts said. "This may sound innocuous, but it means we are spending a billion dollars to set up a board that will inch us one step closer to government-run, socialized health care and rationed care." Pitts said this will result in the government using cost-effectiveness as an argument to deny some patients access to critical care.

Pitts said the bill will remove a requirement that welfare recipients be engaged in education, training or job searches, thereby growing the welfare rolls.

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