Vitter's News Letter

One year ago, over my strong opposition, President Obama and liberals in Congress passed the $1.1 trillion "stimulus" for our economy.  At the time unemployment was at 7.7 percent, and a year later it has unfortunately increased to 9.7 percent.

The stimulus was packed full of wasteful pork barrel spending that has nothing to do with stimulating our economy. 

Here are just a few small examples of egregious waste that our money was spent on:

1. $250 stimulus checks went to thousands of convicted felons while still being held in prison.
   
2. $390,000 to study people who consume malt liquor and marijuana went to The State University Of New York At Buffalo.
   
3. $1 million to renovate Sunset Boulevard, or "the Sunset Strip" was given to the City of West Hollywood Council.
   
4. $54 million went to the Napa Valley wine train.
   

These projects are hardly the type of stimulus we were promised and are typical of the waste and government growth we've seen this past year.  That is why I offered an amendment to the stimulus to cut $40 billion in waste like this and why I joined a majority of our Congressional delegation in voting against the stimulus.

We need to change the focus away from bloated federal spending and away from borrowing or issuing new debt for which the next generation is responsible.

I've introduced the No Cost Stimulus with the specific goal of stimulating the economy by creating jobs, freeing up domestic resources for U.S. citizens, and streamlining regulatory review processes that have choked U.S. business and development.  My bill would increase our oil and gas production and create two million long-term, sustainable and well paying jobs.

I'll keep fighting for commonsense proposals like this and to turn the corner to control exploding federal spending and debt.

Sincerely,

David Vitter
U.S. Senator