Roberto Urges Leaders to Reject Obama’s $50 Billion Stimulus

For Immediate Release:

Congressional Candidate Leonard Roberto Urges Leaders to Reject Obama’s New $50 Billion Stimulus

Buffalo, NY June 14, 2010

Republican candidate  for U.S. House District 27-NY, Leonard Roberto, is urging that Congressman Brian Higgins and other federal representatives from New York reject passing the proposed $50 billion stimulus package proposed by President Barack Obama.

Roberto said that adding $80 billion more dollars to the federal debt in order to save the jobs of government workers is not the path to recovery and will not create sorely needed private sector jobs, especially in Western New York.

In a letter sent to Congress on Saturday June 12,  President Obama urged lawmakers to pass an emergency stimulus plan that would mostly include additional aid to state and local governments.

Obama wants additional funding added to the “Tax Extenders” bill being debated in the U.S. Senate this week that would provide more federal funds for Medicaid and, especially, add federal dollars to the coffers of the President’s proposed Teacher Firing Prevention Fund.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has concluded that Obama’s newest emergency proposals would eventually add $80 billion to the federal budget deficit over the next decade.

Leonard Roberto, the endorsed Republican and Conservative Party congressional candidate in New York’s 27th district , said that this approach to economic recovery is wrong for the country and will not help Western New York.

“The 2009 Stimulus Act has been a proven failure,” Roberto said. “The Stimulus failed to create private sector employment, and it has actually done little for areas even with high government employment rates like Western New York.”

“Why are we now going to add more of a burden to taxpayers in order to pay for a proven policy failure?” Roberto added.

“I find it disheartening that in the midst of one of the worst recessions in our history that the President is proposing more spending in order to bailout bloated state governments and is not doing the things necessary to stimulate growth in the nation’s private sector.” Roberto said.

“The original Stimulus was also touted as a necessary government-to-government transfer in order to save the jobs of teachers and first responders. However, in many places, these jobs were never in jeopardy. “

“Even in New York, despite this year’s budget crisis and the cuts to education spending, most school districts were able to use their own reserves and some targeted spending cuts of their own to preserve the jobs of teachers. That’s how  fiscal emergencies should be handled.”

Roberto also said that many states, like New York, must start making painful decisions about the size and sustainability of their own governments and not pass along the costs of their poor decisions to other states that have made better ones.

“Obama’s Stimulus has been costly to taxpayers and it has added over one hundred billion dollars to the size of the federal deficit, Roberto said. “ At the same time, it did very little to fix the structural cost  issues that afflicted state governments last year. As we are witnessing now in New York, the same fiscal problems exist today in state government, one year later and they will continue. For states with bloated budgets to ask for a federal bailout that burdens people from states with more sustainable fiscal policies is simply unfair.”

“That is why the President’s new Stimulus proposal is the wrong approach to economic recovery,” Roberto warned.

“ Wise investment for a long-term sustainable economic recovery should not include more transfer payments to governments but spending cuts and tax relief,” Roberto continued. “Obama’s new stimulus proposal does little to stimulate economic growth or create jobs and instead merely throws money down a fiscal rathole.”

“The last stimulus did not bring jobs to our area. Instead the money was used to retro-fit local municipal garages with wind energy units, to install booster pumps at the VA Hospital, and to change a lot of light bulbs at city halls,” Roberto asserted.  ” While this may make us feel good, this is not  the solution to bringing back the  manufacturing base and the well-paying jobs that Western New York needs,” Roberto added.

“Additionally, the bad news is that we know that we will be paying for these projects far into the future because, according to some estimates, the total cost of the first Stimulus could run as high as $3.27 trillion.”

“We need to drastically change what we think government can and should do for us in Western New York,” Roberto concluded. “Government stands in the way of economic growth in our state and in our region and it is now seeking to do the same nationally. Leaders in Washington must be more dedicated to reducing the long-term deficit created by Obama and they must start by opposing his out-of-control spending policies; like the new Stimulus. ”