WASHINGTON — No Chattanooga-area members of Congress changed their stances on the economic stimulus bill when the final $789 billion version came up for a vote Friday.
Tennessee and Georgia Republicans, who all voted against the package, continued to hammer the bill as wasteful spending.
“The entire New Deal, in today’s dollars, cost only half of what this bill costs,” Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said on the Senate floor. “We know if we were to save $1 million a day every day since Jesus Christ was born, it’d still be less money than this bill.”
He also criticized Democratic leaders for not offering Republicans a greater chance to offer their ideas for the bill.
DAVIS CALLS OUT GOP
Rep. Lincoln Davis, D-Tenn., who voted in favor of the package, said many Republican criticisms are unfounded.
He said contrary to some Republican claims, the stimulus package contains no earmarks for ACORN, the community organization connected to controversial voter registration efforts. Nor does the bill encourage “socialized medicine,” he said.
“The claims that some of this bill’s opponents are throwing around are disingenuous at best and perhaps deliberately misleading to the American people,” Rep. Davis said.
He said the stimulus package would help create 7,600 jobs in his rural Middle Tennessee district.
WAMP: BILL COULD WEAKEN ECONOMY
Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., acknowledged that Republicans were guilty of runaway spending at times during the six years they controlled Congress after President George W. Bush was elected.
But he said that’s no excuse for Democrats to offer this stimulus bill.
“Home budgets being cut to get through hard times, local governments being cut, and state government budgets being cut,” Rep. Wamp said on the House floor prior to the vote. “But only in Washington can we spend our way into prosperity.”
ISAKSON: HOMEBUYER TAX CREDIT TO RESURFACE
Sens. Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss, both R-Ga., issued a joint statement after the vote criticizing House and Senate negotiators for stripping out an amendment offered by Sen. Isakson for a $15,000 tax credit for homebuyers.
That amendment had passed the Senate unanimously last week, but negotiators instead turned it into a slight expansion of the $7,500 first-time homebuyer tax credit enacted last year.
Sen. Chambliss called the amendment’s exclusion “disheartening,” while Sen. Isakson said he may offer it again as a stand-alone bill.
“We have historical precedent that shows this idea works, and there has been so much public support for it,” Sen. Isakson said.
DEAL PANS STIMULUS
Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Ga., said the final negotiated bill was no better than the $819 billion version that passed the House last week.
He, too, lamented the loss of Sen. Isakson’s homebuyer tax credit.
“I don’t think we’re going to get the housing market under control by depending on first time homebuyers,” Rep. Deal said.
CORKER: BILL WILL CAUSE BUDGET REMORSE
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said the stimulus should have focused on fixing the housing and credit markets, instead.
He said while he hopes jobs are created in the next year, he remains doubtful that it will be because of the stimulus bill.
“I believe many Americans will look up in 24 or 36 months and realize they are left paying the tab for something that will have very little tangible benefit to our country,” he said.
Compiled by Washington correspondent Herman Wang.
E-mail Herman Wang at hwang@timesfreepress.com
