Kaptur, Latta agree: Despite stimulus, there is work to be done
Written by Kristen Rapin | | krapin@toledofreepress.comIt has been one year since the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the “stimulus bill,” was signed into law and area Congress members think there is still work to be done.
The bill granted $787 billion in spending throughout the United States to jump-start the economy and create jobs. Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-Toledo) voted to pass the bill, while Congressman Bob Latta (R-Bowling Green) voted against it.
According to recovery.gov, Ohio has been awarded approximately $6.4 billion in funding for loans, grants and contracts. The state has received about $1.7 billion, as of Feb.17.
Bob Latta
Congressman Latta said the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was passed too quickly by Congress and has failed to create jobs. President Barack Obama promised the unemployment rate would not rise to more than 8 percent if the bill was passed, but the unemployment rate reached 19 percent nationally, Latta said.
“A lot of the money flowed to the state instead of helping to create jobs. States used the funding to balance their budget,” Latta said. “This money did not do anything it was supposed to do. They raced it through, they spent the money and now we’re in a situation that they can’t give us an accurate figure if they’ve created jobs or if they’ve saved jobs.”
With interest, the stimulus bill is costing the American people more than $1.2 trillion, Latta said.
“We have a situation out there that the money is gone and now we’re stuck having to figure out how we’re going to pay this back,” he said.
Kaptur said while the bill didn’t address the problems in the economy, it helped the United States from falling further apart: “Nationally, we have saved or created 2 million and 2.4 million jobs. Is it sufficient? No. Did it help us from falling further into the recession? Absolutely.”
Kaptur said stimulus money helped the district, which has unemployment rates above the national average, by providing unemployment checks and funding COBRA. The stimulus bill included funding $250 to senior citizens for cost of living, the first-time home buyer tax credit and maintained Medicaid, she said.
The stimulus also assisted with “lifeline programs,” by maintaining police, firefighters and teachers. In Toledo it helped rehire approximately three dozen police officers, Kaptur said.
Kaptur, however, criticizes the administration for not addressing the true problem that caused this recession; Wall Street irresponsibility and the housing crisis.
“Their programs in housing and banking aren’t working. Across the country there is a huge down draft on what the stimulus can do as a result,” she said.
The banks inflated the housing market and took risky investments. When they failed, the government bailed them out, Kaptur said. The banks need to be held responsible for the role they played, she said.
Additionally, banks have stopped lending to small business and small businesses can’t grow and create jobs, she said.
Kaptur has proposed a bill in the house, H.R.4377 Return to Prudent Banking Act of 2009, that would hold banks accountable for their actions and prevent events like those of 2008 from happening again.
Marcy Kaptur
2011 budget
Both Kaptur and Latta are on the House Committee on the Budget. During March, April and May the committee will be creating guidelines and financial budgets for agencies for the 2011 fiscal year.
President Obama presented the committee a $3.6 trillion budget with $1.6 trillion in deficits, a number Latta found alarming, he said
“This thing has spiraled out of control and folks need to step back and say you can’t keep spending money like this,” he said.
If things continue on the track they are going it is possible to be $25 trillion in the hole by 2020, Latta said. The government continues to spend to get out of the recession, while they should be creating atmospheres where small and big businesses can grow and put people back to work, he said.
“We need to run the federal government like you do a household. You don’t spend it if you don’t have it,” Latta said.
The government is spending too much, borrowing too much, taxing too much and regulating too much, he said. All of these things spell “impending doom” for businesses in the United States.
Kaptur said under Obama, the interest paid on debts is a smaller percentage of the gross domestic product than under Bush, but thinks America should eliminate its foreign debt.
“America was founded on the idea of independence, not dependence. With our foreign loans, we are no longer independent,” Kaptur said.
The budget vote will happen in May.
Tags: Bob Latta
Asking Kapturd’s, advise on anything , is like asking Captain Edward Smith ,of the RMS Titanic , for piloting advise !
Be afraid…be very, very, AFRAID !!!
P.S. I truly loath that exclamation. I know it’s a liberal favorite though…liberal’s are afraid of everything they don’t comprehend ,an easily SPOOKED ‘gene’, permeates them all.
This comment was posted on February 18th, 2010 at 8:54 pmThe stimulus will have never been helpful for America only a fool would think they can get ahead by borrowing and spending money they dont have. What is it really going to cost us for the stimulus by the time it is paid off? Do you really think the benefits will ever outway the costs? We should have allowed those who were irresponsible with there money to lose everything instead of putting the rest of us and our children at risk. How many people do you know have gotten themselves out of debt using payday advances?
This comment was posted on February 18th, 2010 at 10:09 pmThe best thing Marcy Kaptur could do for us and our country is to not run for re-election.
This comment was posted on February 18th, 2010 at 10:13 pmBruce, you are obviously not a business owner. Rare is the business that can pay for its own capital improvements by using cash reserves; Businesses need to borrow money to invest in their future, the government is doing the same. Without the stimulus another 2 million jobs or so would have been lost ALREADY, with that total reaching 3 million eventually.
Another thing, who let this cub reporter write this article? It is horrible journalism. She really let Latta throw out some whoppers unchallenged. For example, Obama never “promised” the unemployment rate wouldn’t go over 8 percent. Latta is twisting his words. He said the 8 percent rate would be reached WITHOUT the stimulus. The rate then did hit 10 percent, but that doesn’t mean he promised it wouldn’t go higher.
And did you catch Latta saying the national unemployment rate hit 19 percent!? the unemployment rate is about 9.3 percent according to the BLS. Pretty big error to let go.
She did not question how he derived $1.2 trillion number for the stimulus bill, a third of which was tax cuts?
Latta is an extreme ideologue with no policy ideas beyond tax cuts and privatize everything.
This comment was posted on February 20th, 2010 at 12:48 am“She really let Latta throw out some whoppers unchallenged.”
Was the reporter even present to ask the questions?
Some of the reporting seems to be gleaned from other sources, blogs, community sites, etc.
But, with the recent calls for smaller government, shouldn’t we be looking to those out some reps, after all we 435 of them, that’s a lot.
Let’s have one for each state along with one senator, now that is some downsizing, and smaller government.
And while we’re cutting, let’s cut the EPA, created by Nixon, a conservative who wanted smaller government, and NASA, and the FAA, and the transportation system, all not called for in the Constitution, and more glaring examples of items not needed.
Let the free enterprise system build the roads, etc.
” while they should be creating atmospheres where small and big businesses can grow and put people back to work, he said.”
No, no, no, it is not the roll of government to create anything, that is the role of the free market.
“Wall Street irresponsibility ”
Congress will not address this, as they have been bought by the firms.
But, then again, it is the free market at work, and if the banks and Wall Street want to bankrupt each and us, let them, it is the free market at work.
This comment was posted on February 21st, 2010 at 11:35 amOBAMAOSCARE HEALTH UPDATE :if you have a very good health insurance plan, ObaMao, has decided that THAT, is unfair to others with plans deemed not so GREAT…sooooo, the excise tax has been raised ( due to screams from psychopathic liberals and the ObaMarx Chicago Mafia )from $23,000 to a paltry $27,500 !!!
How’s that for benevolence from economic communists ?!
This comment was posted on February 22nd, 2010 at 1:17 pmOh, I forgot, if you don’t pay the excise tax…YOU GO TO PRISON !!!
Lenin ,is happy,. Stalin, is very proud,. Hitler, is jubilant.All far leftists are beside themselves with joy…and prisoners cannot wait for some new meat to ingest.
AMERICA, where are ya ??!!
Rourke, I am a business owner and over the past ten years we have successfully grown using our own cash reserves. I understand there are many business owners that are not able to accomplish that using their own money. The main point in my reply is that yes the stimulus was and still is the biggest waste of taxpayer money we hopefully will probably ever see. The way the money has been distributed is completely backwards like the bank bailouts. My next point with the stimulus is the unconstitutionality of the whole process. The fact is we would have been better off letting the economy take its course with the market and the economy. Now we still have record high foreclosures and unemployment plus a debt that my great grand children will be dealing with. This country needs to regain personal responsibility I hold myself responsible for my own actions and decisions. Why am I getting the short end of the stick? I am responsible for this debt too except I like many others have made responsible decisions for myself and my business. The numbers do not lie I just read a report on the great state of Mississippi stating that the jobs saved in that state due to the stimulus averaged $700,070,000 per job. Does that sound like it is worth it?
This comment was posted on February 22nd, 2010 at 5:23 pmBruce,
Latta completely ignores that the stimulus will help preserve or create about 3 million jobs. That fact doesn’t fit into his talking points. GDP has been lifted as a direct result of the stimulus, which will keep money flowing through the economy, and the resulting innovation, technology and so forth, will ultimately lift our economy out of this mini-depression. That’s the hope anyway, and its a reasonable one to have.
The alternative is to let the economy tank and watch sector after sector of the economy get sucked into the downward spiral. That kind of result would take a decade and likely longer to rebound from.
I don’t know why you think the stimulus is unconstitutional. If this was anywhere near a plausible claim, why hasn’t anyone filed a lawsuit in federal court? Any taxpayer would have standing to do so. Nobody does because its a specious claim to make.
There’s more to a society than ensuring everyone is being responsible for themselves. That’s not the be all end all. Everyone is connected. Your neighbor’s foreclosed house, not to mention the local schools not being adequate, hurts your house’s value. You have a vested interest in the well being of your community, both local state and national (and I would add world too).
Lastly, your claim about Missippi doesn’t make sense. I don’t know how much of the $787 billion stimulus went to Missippi but it wasn’t $700,070,000 as you claim. That’s almost the whole amount to the poorest state in the union!
This comment was posted on February 24th, 2010 at 12:06 am