News for the Ninth

By Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer, 9^th District of Missouri

As you may know, our country and American taxpayers recently marked the one-year anniversary of the failed economic stimulus package known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a bill I strongly opposed because it had more to do with pork barrel spending than creating jobs.

When Congress passed the bloated $862 billion spending bill, the unemployment rate stood at 7.6 percent and the Administration was promising that unemployment would never go above 8.2 percent. One year later, unemployment stands at 9.7 percent and the U.S. economy has lost nearly 3.3 million jobs. Then, recently, the USA Today reported that more than $3.5 billion in economic stimulus funds are going to programs that President Obama wants to eliminate or trim in his new budget.

Even though the vast majority of spending in this bill has been a massive waste of your hard-earned taxpayer dollars, the majority in Washington, D.C., has announced plans for a second stimulus, which I believe will do nothing to improve your quality of life or get folks back to work. Clearly, most Americans feel that their money has been thrown away: The New York Times recently reported that only 6 percent of Americans believe the stimulus has created jobs and 48 percent of Americans say it never will. This comes as no surprise to me because people like you have let me know that you are opposed to spending more of your money on expensive government spending plans.

I have heard you loud and clear and am trying to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle in Congress to look at no-cost stimulus options that will send positive pro-growth messages to our employers and our American workers. We need to freeze all domestic discretionary spending and rescind all unspent stimulus so we can use the money to reduce our crippling debt. It also is my firm belief that we should actively pass pending free trade agreements in order to maintain existing markets for American-made goods around the world.

Congress must act to rein in the ever-growing national debt by reducing spending and showing how we can use innovative and common sense approaches to stabilize our economy that lay the foundation for future job growth and economic prosperity.

We cannot afford to fail.

Contact Us: As always, I encourage you to visit my website at http://luetkemeyer.house.gov/. I also encourage you to call my offices in Columbia (573-886-8929), Washington, Mo (636-239-2276), or Hannibal (573-231-1012) with your questions and concerns. If you want even greater access to what I am working on, please visit my YouTube site at http://www.youtube.com/user/BLuetkemeyer and my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/people/Blaine-Luetkemeyer/1358702716.