Paul Ryan: Washington spending is "slow, wasteful and ineffective"

Congressman Paul Ryan (WI-01)
CNN - Your Money
July 11, 2009

On the so-called stimulus spending bill:

Well first of all, the claim was that the stimulus would keep unemployment below 8 percent. It's now 9.5 percent. We've already lost 2 million jobs since the stimulus passed. More to the point, the stimulus will cost $1.1 trillion in borrowing and that's pushing interest rates up and that's hurting people that are trying to buy homes and who are trying to avoid foreclosure and who are trying to invest. So, when we see the stimulus, which is spent very slowly, the kind of spending in this stimulus, most of it doesn't even occur until after 2011, it's not working. We should do something better. Only 3 percent of the stimulus package actually goes to encouraging businesses to keep or create jobs. The rest of it is rebates and spending; most of the spending is slow, wasteful, and ineffective.

On the notion that Washington isnt spending enough of your money:

I've heard [Paul Krugmans] argument. I just don't agree with that. We're already borrowing 50 percent of the federal government's budget this year alone. We're borrowing $2 trillion just this year. All this borrowing is going to push up interest rates. It's going to give us an inflation problem. And we believe that the stimulus - and we proposed an alternative - ought to go to businesses, small and large, to encourage them to keep people working. To encourage businesses to invest and expand and hire more people. If more spending from Washington was the answer to our economic challenges, then we wouldn't have a problem in our economy, because we're spending more than we ever have in the history of this country.

On more effective economic alternatives to create jobs:

What we say is give businesses the ability to write off 100 percent of their investments. If they hire people and if they buy more plant and machinery to put people to work, they can write that off immediately. We also tax our companies at the second highest rate in the industrialized world, and so what happens in the 21st century global economy is when you tax your employers a lot more than your competitors are taxing theirs, we lose jobs overseas. We've got to be more competitive.

So those are the things we're saying we ought to do. Also we think we ought to help people make the money back in their savings portfolio that they lost. We think there ought to be a sunset of the capital gains tax for at least two years. It's not a huge revenue raiser for the government, but it's a huge punitive tax on our savings plans. Let's help the economy get back into investing. Let's encourage investors to take risks and let's help people make back the money in their IRAs and the 401(k)s and their kids' college savings plans that they've lost so much money from.

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Category:

News & Politics

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[chewbaca1989]

Illuminate me. I usually criticize folks too. I usually give a my interpretation of the subject based on what I know. I don't know everything and don't have answers for everything.

So...

[davisjeneric]

from what you've written, you apparently DON'T know what the fuck you're talking about.

[cradloff30]

Mr. Ryan is a voice of reason. Proud to have him as a Wisconsin rep.

[ballajd]

Thanks Rep Ryan, I so wish you was my us congress rep. I have Dr. Steven Kagen, "The Pelosi Puppet"  who believes in spending tax payer money to solve all problems.

[chewbaca1989]

I don't understand, at the end of the day aren't the Reps just as Guilty of wasting?

This Stimulus is a crock.

The difference being the Reps want to Socialize small business and the Dems want to grow government.

WTF?

[chewbaca1989]

It's only getting worse.

[fufuberry5]

The Stimulus crowds out Individuals and Businesses!!!!!!

[cool70200]

my mistake, not just small or mid sized businesses.

But those businesses that are profitable, that have a good growth model. We need to encourage growth, not bailout fear or political favorites.

We also need to stop this nonsense of outscourcing or non-protectionism, until we can stand strong on our feet and get our growth up to at least %4-5 gdp growth and be able offset our debt and still net a profit.

this mr, Ryan has it right, I only wonder if he will be heeded, or ignored and hushed

[cool70200]

Growth and good spending management, not debt, will create sustainable budgets and profits and thereby employment.

Find the country's largest domestic growth factor, worker consumers, small-mid businesses, get their costs down so they can spend, not government.

This culture/mentality of spend or "Do such and such" and not consider reality at all until it comes and bites us, and others, in the ass, is pretty bizarre.

Oh woe is us corrupt simple minded naive humans, will we ever learn?

[ilovebrewers2]

Thank you Sir.