Congressman Patrick McHenry (NC-10) released the following statement regarding his vote against the conference report of H.R. 1.

“Behind closed doors, House and Senate Democrats secretly negotiated a bill that has fewer tax cuts for small business, less tax relief for working families, and more wasteful spending.

As for jobs, the Democrats’ bill spends $263,000 for every job created.  By contrast, the House Republican Stimulus Plan creates twice as many jobs at half the cost to taxpayers.  That's because it focuses entirely on stimulating the economy, not funding the pet projects of politicians.

Middle class families will now receive a mere $1.10 in tax relief per day for just two years.  Meanwhile, the bill increases the tax burden to $9,900 for every American family.  Less than 3% of the bill is devoted to job-creating tax cuts for small businesses.  Investment in road and bridge projects was cut down to less than 4% of the total spending.

And yet, the bill wastes billions of tax dollars on non-stimulus projects, including green golf carts, urban canal inspection, removal of fish barriers, the National Endowment for the Arts, the voter-fraud group ACORN, and an experimental levitating train between Disneyland and Las Vegas.

The Democrats must stop pretending that we can keep printing taxpayer money without bankrupting the long-term economic security of our country.  In these tough times, the citizens of Western North Carolina need and deserve a real economic stimulus bill.  Instead, the Democrats have chosen to pass the largest government spending bill in the history of our country, leaving taxpayers to pay the check.”

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