Weekly Column:   –  “As I write this, more big numbers are flying around Washington, DC.  I’m sure that circumstance won’t have changed by the time this message reaches you.

In the past week, a new budget report set the size of the federal budget deficit at $1.2 trillion  – nearly triple the size of the deficit ($455 billion) incurred the year before.  To outspend our federal revenues by $1.2 trillion is unprecedented, and for good reason.  This number isn’t about loans to banks or automakers, it’s sheer spending piled on top of our national debt.

Many think we can spend ourselves out of a national economic recession, but reckless spending which is not accountable to taxpayers will only make the problem worse.

Match the news about our federal deficit with the news of a new stimulus package coming down the pike, and Americans have real reason to be concerned. This package comes at a complicated time of grave new challenges for our country, not the least of which is keeping our economy afloat, encouraging small business development and putting Americans to work at solid jobs in innovative fields.

I agree with the idea that we need to invest in our entire nation; in transportation infrastructure, in job training, in health care and in the futures of young Americans.  On the other hand, I ardently disagree with the concept of taking on more federal debt that our children must bear.

If we have another stimulus package, I harbor another deep concern: that the billions of dollars of taxpayer money to stimulate the economy will be spent mostly or only in America’s urban areas.

Rural America needs to get a fair return on any and every investment of its tax dollars.  There is no reason, or excuse, for a stimulus that helps only the cities of our nation.  In counties across Southern Missouri and in other rural parts of our country, roads are worn, bridges need replacement, and ports need dredging.  The food that feeds Americans and the manufactured goods in our homes or garages travel a constantly-deteriorating infrastructure from the rural places where they are made to the urban places where they are, mostly, consumed.  Keeping our rural infrastructure alive is tantamount to keeping our rural economy alive.

The level playing field is important for another reason: in order to keep jobs in rural America, we have to keep the businesses and manufacturers on site and happy.  When those companies pull up stakes they go to other countries where labor costs are lower, not to Americans cities.  No matter how much money we put into urban renewal and suburban development, America will lose jobs if we do not proportionately invest in our rural communities.

One of the chief advantages our Founders installed in the U.S. House of Representatives is the even representation it provides to Americans.  No matter how great or small your state is, every 670,000 residents or so has one member at work for him or her in the House of Representatives.  The same philosophy ought to instruct any responsible stimulus package to make certain no community in rural America is left out or left behind.

One idea that does translate evenly across the geography of our nation is a system of tax cuts, either new or extended, that spur growth, savings, and lending. 

Without question, the Congress must work hard to shape legislation that protects taxpayers, but we must also work to preserve the jobs, the opportunities, and the economy that make our country great.”