‘A Chance to Do Something Big, Man’

In an interview with Time Magazine, Vice President Joe Biden said of the $787 billion Obama stimulus package, “This is a chance to do something big, man!”

He was right. The stimulus package was an opportunity to do something big – it was a chance to get the American economy moving again and reduce taxes to create jobs.

Instead, Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama saw it as a chance to enact the liberal programs of their dreams. Instead of tax cuts for small businesses, the American people were handed billions of dollars in new spending, sometimes in congressional districts that don’t even exist.

The White House is fond of saying that the stimulus bill saved or created 3 million jobs. But the reality in America’s communities and hometowns tells a much different story. According to an Associated Press poll, 65 percent of voters know someone who has lost their job. Streets are blanketed with ‘For Sale’ signs as home sales saw their worst month to month loss in history in July.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the federal budget deficit for 2010 will exceed $1.3 trillion. Unemployment continues to linger at nearly 10 percent, and in many states it is much higher.

The Democrats in Congress and the White House had a chance to do something big, but they did it in all the wrong ways. Instead of more jobs, the American people were handed bigger deficits. Instead of lower taxes, the people will face bigger tax bills. The American taxpayers deserve much more than the ‘something big’ Joe Biden and the Democrats have delivered for them.