Erik Paulsen's 3/13/09 email to me

Dear Friend:

Thank you for letting me know of your opposition to the so-called stimulus bill.

I strongly share your opposition to this legislation, and you will be pleased to know that I voted against it when it was considered by the House.

As I said on the floor of the House during the debate on the original bill, we need a real stimulus that will put people back to work - that preserves, protects and most importantly creates jobs. But this big government spending bill does not accomplish this.

An analysis by the nonpartisan CBO found that just 7-8 percent of the infrastructure spending in the plan would be delivered into the economy by the end of this year - and less than half is spent in the first 2 years.

In addition, an extremely low percentage of the plan is aimed at job creation. Instead, the bill essentially turned into a supplemental spending bill and became a grab bag of special interest spending on unrelated items that will not save or create jobs. The bill will fund requests such as $2 million for neon signs in Las Vegas, $4.5 million for an eco park featuring butterfly gardens and gopher tortoises, $500,000 for a dog park, $3 million for a municipal golf course clubhouse, $886,000 for a 36-hole disc golf course, $1.8 million for replacement tennis courts, $6 million for three aquatic centers with water slides .. the list goes on and on. Clearly, we should not be spending more on these programs than on helping small businesses create jobs.

I supported an alternative stimulus plan that would provide relief for Minnesota families and create jobs. The proposal contained a variety of incentives for small businesses to create jobs, including a 20 percent tax deduction for small businesses; a health insurance premium deduction for those who do not get health insurance from their employers; an improved homebuyer tax credit; an exemption to make unemployment benefits tax free; and a variety of other initiatives that would help jumpstart our economy. In fact, analysis showed it would create twice the jobs at half the cost.

I believe both parties in Congress need to work together on real solutions to jumpstart the struggling economy and put people back to work. Congress also needs a "new era of responsibility" in how it spends the taxpayers' money. This stimulus package does not achieve those goals but only adds to the budget deficit.

You can be sure of my continued efforts to grow our economy, put people back to work and restore fiscal responsibility to Congress.

Thanks again for sharing your concerns, as I appreciate hearing from you. Please let me know whenever I can be of assistance.

Sincerely,

Erik Paulsen
Member of Congress