Three years ago this week, President Obama signed into law one of the most expensive pieces of legislation in history.  Costing taxpayers more than $1 trillion, his “stimulus bill” was supposed to jumpstart the economy, and his advisers promised it would keep unemployment below 8 percent.  Instead, it has made matters worse. 

Enough time has passed to recognize the failed policies of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  Millions of Americans are still looking for work, economic growth has languished, and the national debt has soared to more than $15 trillion.  When the country needed a recovery, the President gave Americans a bigger bill to pay. 

Call for Fiscal Responsibility

I voted against President Obama’s stimulus package.  Senate Republicans had proposed a different approach at half the cost – one with targeted strategies to fix the housing crisis, help the workforce, and empower job creators.  Our plan focused on real economic solutions without unnecessarily adding to the country’s crushing debt. 

Unfortunately, the call for a fiscally responsible stimulus was rejected by the Democratic supermajorities in Congress, who were willing to give the President a blank check during the first two years of his term.  Since the President’s stimulus became law, the national debt has grown by an alarming $5.4 trillion. 

$278,000 Per Job

Americans deserve more for their taxpayer dollars than a big-government spending blitz without results.  This became startlingly clear last year when a report from the President’s Council of Economic Advisers announced the stimulus had saved or created between 2.4 million and 3.6 million jobs at a cost of $666 billion.  At that rate, each job credited to the stimulus came with an outrageous price tag of up to $278,000.

Not surprisingly, the numbers have not translated into lower unemployment.  The White House had predicted the stimulus would bring unemployment down to 6 percent by 2012, but it has not dropped below 8 percent in 36 consecutive months.  In fact, there are about 5.5 million fewer jobs today than before the recession began and 1.1 million more unemployed Americans since President Obama took office. 

And yet, the painful examples of reckless spending are not isolated to lackluster job creation.  Stimulus funds went to a number of questionable projects, including the loan guarantee to now-bankrupt Solyndra, fossil research in Argentina, and the beautification of Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard.  Instead of protecting the taxpayer dime, the President and Democrats pushed for wasteful initiatives in the name of recovery. 

Achieving Real Progress

It goes without saying that we have a difficult task before us.  Years of runaway spending have mired the country in serious debt.  The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported last month that this year’s deficit will be more than $1 trillion – for the fourth year in a row.  Instead of cutting the deficit in half, as President Obama promised to do by the end of his first term, he has sent it soaring.

Three years ago, our economy needed strengthening and millions of Americans needed help getting back on their feet.  That is still true today.  To move forward, we should be working on solutions that build the workforce – not big government.  This means domestic energy production and encouraging growth and hiring in the private sector.

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