Economic Stimulus Act of 2008
Mr. CAMPBELL of California. I thank my friend from Louisiana for yielding.
Madam Speaker, I hope that my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will vote against this bill tonight. I hope you will vote against it because itand#39;s too late. The most important quarters are this quarter and next quarter, and the vast majority of this wonand#39;t even take effect until after or at the end of the next quarter. I hope you will vote against it, because it may be political stimulus, but it is the wrong economic stimulus. We are in this problem because of a credit crunch leading to a capital crunch because, arguably, Americans bought, borrowed, and spent too much, and we are going to ask them to spend more.
I hope you will oppose it because it is wealth redistribution. People who pay over 50 percent of the taxes in this country will get nothing, and roughly 30 percent of the benefit of this will go to people who pay no taxes at all.
I hope you will vote against this and oppose it because illegal aliens will get this in spite of the new language put in the bill. You see, we have lots of laws that say it is illegal for people to be here and do what they do anyway. The problem is we donand#39;t enforce those, and we canand#39;t enforce what is in here either. It will be another unenforceable law.
I hope you will oppose it because of the potential for fraud. When you give money for nothing, there is an ability for fraud. The GAO estimates that roughly one-third of all the earned income tax credits paid out are fraudulent. It will be the same here.
I hope you will oppose it because it encourages spending when what we need as a society is more saving and investment.
But if none of that mattered, if none of that mattered to you at all, I hope you will oppose it because it nearly doubles the deficit for this year. After 3 years of declining deficits, weand#39;re going to begin the other way. We are going to nearly double that deficit.
Buy a flat screen TV and save America. Itand#39;s not a good policy. I urge you to vote `no.and#39;and#39;
