October 2, 2009

On October 3 of last year, Congress created the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. In my role as chairman of the Republican Study Committee, the House's 100-plus member conservative caucus, I helped lead the opposition to TARP while co-authoring an alternative that did not carry the day. After TARP's passage, I was appointed to the five-member Congressional Oversight Panel for the program.  Thus, I have had the opportunity to closely examine whether or not TARP has contributed to an economic recovery.
Since being sworn into office on January 20, 2009, the Obama Administration, with its robust Democratic majorities in Congress, has also passed a $1.138 trillion big-government stimulus bill costing $9,745 per household, a $410 billion pork-filled omnibus spending bill costing $3,511 per household, and a $3.6 trillion budget costing every household $30,826.  On top of these policies, the Obama Administration has proposed several jobs-killing taxes, such as a new national energy tax costing anywhere from $1,600 to $3,000 per American household, and $534 billion in new taxes on businesses to pay for the Democrats’ so-called health care reform.

Despite the claims of the Obama Administration and Congressional Democrats that these policies would create jobs and an economic recovery, today it was announced that we have an unemployment rate that is 9.8 %, the highest in 26 years, and 3.391 million people have lost their jobs since President Obama took office.  Clearly, the policies of ‘Obamanomics’ have failed.  You can’t have a jobless recovery.  No jobs, no recovery.    

In an editorial published this week on FORBES.com I made the point that “Millions of hardworking Americans have lost their jobs as a result of this crisis. But no nation can bail out, borrow and spend its way to prosperity. Nor should the federal government be forever empowered to politicize our economy by picking the winners and losers among us. You cannot have capitalism on the way up and socialism on the way down. It is time to terminate TARP and allow voluntary investment, fiscal discipline and the spirit of American entrepreneurship to be unleashed.”

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