On Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act, which extends many current tax provisions and allocates funding for various spending initiatives. The bill will now go to the Senate.
While the name of the bill may sound pleasant (who doesn’t like “American jobs” or “closing loopholes”?), the reality is that the package contains a lot of new spending that is not paid for. The following are some of the spending measures that are in the bill:
$500 million for Small Business Lending
$20 billion for green energy
$7.9 billion for Build America Bonds
$6 billion for summer jobs for young people
$3 billion pension bailout
$1.5 billion for agricultural losses
$1 billion for the national housing trust fund
On face, none of these measures seems insidious. Many argue that these are all efforts designed to aid recovery and contribute to the public good. However, the federal government is already on track to spend $3.6 trillion this year – the highest amount spent since WWII. Furthermore, the majority of these programs had already been funded through the $862 billion “stimulus” program last year. Some refer to programs like those listed above as government ‘investment.’ But this is a misnomer. Recent research from Harvard Business School shows that government spending is not working – it’s crowding out private investment, thus hindering economic growth.
Call your Senator and ask him or her to vote against this legislation - our economy’s growth depends on less government spending.
