ALG on $7.4 Billion ‘America Competes Act’: “More Corporate Welfare After Omnibus Defeated is Outrageous”

December 17th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement in opposition to HR 5116, a bill with $7.4 billion in new spending sponsored by Senator Jay Rockefeller and cosponsored by Senators Alexander, Kay Bailey Hutchison and Jeff Bingaman:

“Not a day after the American people demanded that the wasteful spending come to an end with the omnibus bill, the Senate is already back to its old tricks. Now the so-called ‘America Competes Act’ has been put on the fast track to get unanimous authorization by the Senate. This is just more corporate welfare, even after omnibus was defeated, and it is outrageous. Where are the spending cuts the American people were promised?

“The programs funded in the bill, including increased spending of $7.4 billion for research grants, ‘green’ jobs and other items, are really irrelevant. No non-essential programs should be getting any additional funding while the nation has a $13.8 trillion national debt that cannot be paid.

“After November, it is no longer Congress’ job to borrow and spend billions of dollars it doesn’t have. Now, its job is to cut spending and to find a way to reduce the national debt so that we can return to a sustainable path as a nation. This $7.4 billion in new spending is completely unnecessary. There should be no new spending for unessential items like this. If the Senate cannot defeat smaller spending items, how will it tackle the larger ones? This is not what the American people voted for in November.

“If Congress cannot find a way to reduce spending and cut wasteful programs, the $13.8 trillion debt will soon be larger than the entire economy. Next year, the Federal Reserve will be the number one lender in the entire world to the government — more than China — with over $1 trillion of printed money. Moody’s has warned that it may downgrade its outlook to negative next year, and it could downgrade the Triple-A credit rating by 2018 if not sooner. Since there is a large bipartisan consensus not to increase taxes in this recession, that means our fiscal house can be brought into order with spending cuts. This $7.4 billion in new spending should be defeated.”

Attachment:

$7.4 billion in new spending, HR 5116.

Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

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