Senate Proceeding on Feb 13th, 2009 :: 7:07:15 to 7:13:00
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7:07:12 to 7:07:33( Edit History Discussion )

Mitch McConnell: with that, mr. president, i yield back. the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: mr. president, i will proed on my leader time. the presiding officer: the senator is recognized. mr. mcconnell: mr. president, across the country americans are struggling with a very bad economy. every day we hear more heartbreaking stories about foreclosure and lost jobs. the situation is serious.

7:07:15 to 7:13:00( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Mitch McConnell
Bill: H.R. 1: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

7:07:34 to 7:07:54( Edit History Discussion )

Mitch McConnell: it appears to be getting worse. it was in the midst of this our new president took office. like all of us the president wanted to do all he could to help the economy. so he asked congress t together a stimulus bill aimed at preventing as much future damage as possible. from the very start republican

7:07:55 to 7:08:15( Edit History Discussion )

Mitch McConnell: supported the idea of a stimulus. all of us, democrat and republican, thought it was important and necessary. the question was: what kind of stimulus? what would it look like? what would it cost? who would it help? where would it go? and most importantly, would it work? these are important questions.

7:08:16 to 7:08:36( Edit History Discussion )

Mitch McConnell: particularly when the economists tell us a bad stimulus is worse than no stimulus at all. as the president's top economist larry summer has written, poorly provided fiscal stimulus can have worse side effects than the disease th and these questions naturally lead to another, how do we measure whether a stimulus will

7:08:37 to 7:08:57( Edit History Discussion )

Mitch McConnell: work? well, according to summers it is a fairly simple three-point test: fir effective a fiscal stimulus must be timely. second, it must be targeted. third, it must be clearly temporary.

7:08:58 to 7:09:19( Edit History Discussion )

Mitch McConnell: so using the standard outline by the top ask, is this bill timely? is it targeted? and is it temporary? the answer, i concluded, is a resounding "no." this bill fails o all three points. and this means in my view that congressional democrats have put together a stimulus that by

7:09:20 to 7:09:42( Edit History Discussion )

Mitch McConnell: democrats' own standards is likely to fail yet with interest this bill is expected to cost taxpayers .1 trillion. so the question now is, what can the taxpayers expect for their money? well, at a time when millions of struggling to hold on to their homes and jobs, democrats in the name of stimulus want taxpayers

7:09:43 to 7:10:06( Edit History Discussion )

Mitch McConnell: to cover the cost electric motorcycles and government cars; billion for acorn elgibility block grants; 0 million for out of work artists; 65 million to

7:10:07 to 7:10:28( Edit History Discussion )

Mitch McConnell: maintain and build fish hatcheries, for fish billion for the census. i defy anyone to explain to me how billion for the census will stimulate the u.s. so a stimulus supposed to be timely, targeted and temporary is none of the above.

7:10:29 to 7:10:49( Edit History Discussion )

Mitch McConnell: and this means congress is a to approve a stimulus that is unlikely to have a stimulative effect and that is why an analysis by the congressional budget office predicted a potential sustained economic decline -- dec direct result of this bill. and that's why i can't support it.

7:10:50 to 7:11:11( Edit History Discussion )

Mitch McConnell: this is one of the most expensive pieces of legislation congress has ever approved including interest, expected to cost .1 trill to put that figure in perspective consider this: if you spent million a day, evy day since jesus was born, you still wouldn't have spent trillion.

7:11:12 to 7:11:32( Edit History Discussion )

Mitch McConnell: this is an extraordinary sum of it deserves an extraordinary level of scrutiny. yet even based on the ordinary standards of evaluation, it fails t timely, targeted and temporary, we would still have to look at the price tag in the context of all the other spending

7:11:33 to 7:11:54( Edit History Discussion )

Mitch McConnell: all soon going to be asked to consider. the american people need to remember this stimulus is just one piece of the democrats' overall spending plan. soon we will be asked t consider 0 billion for housing ; unspecified hundreds of billions, possibly even another trillion for troubled banks;

7:11:55 to 7:12:15( Edit History Discussion )

Mitch McConnell: and we will be voting on a 00 billion omnibus appropriations bill to bring the toalt-total discretionar spending for trillion, the first time in american history. this is monopoly money, it is real and it to be paid back by our children and their children and the american people still don't have

7:12:16 to 7:12:37( Edit History Discussion )

Mitch McConnell: the facts a we need to tell the american people the whole story here. if americans captains be assured these programs they are paying for will work, they should at least be told what they're going to cost. even the democrats admit this bill is a trillion risk. today, this very day, the democratic majority leader of

7:12:38 to 7:12:59( Edit History Discussion )

Mitch McConnell: the house asked his members to -- quote -- " bill works. why? because as he said he's not sure it will. i can't take that big a risk on this big a commitment of the american people's money. i know everyone believes that their efforts will strengthen the economy and create jobs.

7:13:00 to 7:13:00( Edit History Discussion )

Mitch McConnell: no one should doubt that.