“Because of this investment, nearly 400,000 men and women will go to work rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, repairing our faulty dams and levees, bringing critical broadband connections to businesses and homes in nearly every community in America, upgrading mass transit, building high-speed rail lines that will improve travel and commerce throughout our nation."

President Obama’s economic policies have failed and Democrats in Washington are flailing to find new taxpayer funded initiative to grow the economy.  The president has proposed $50 billion for more infrastructure projects.  Democrats have already approved a nearly $1.2 trillion “stimulus” plan, a $17 billion HIRE Act, and a $26 billion state bailout in an effort to stimulate growth, but none of the stimulus spending has increased the number of jobs in the economy.  When the original $1.2 trillion stimulus was approved, the President said that the bill contained “a $150 billion investment in our nation’s infrastructure.”   When President Obama signed the original stimulus into law, the unemployment rate stood at 7.7 percent; hardly 19 months later, unemployment stands at 9.6 percent.  Unemployment has been above nine percent for 16 consecutive months.  When the first stimulus was approved, the Obama Administration promised that more deficit spending would “meet the goal of creating or saving at least 3.5 million jobs over the next two years.”  Since then, the economy has shed 3.58 million jobs.  Still, the president is asking for more taxpayer funded stimulus.

The American people can’t afford more of the Democrat’s failed policies, nor can they afford more tax increases, as the president is proposing.  According to press reports, in order to offset this new round of government spending, “the administration would raise taxes on oil and gas companies.”  Once again, this administration is proposing permanent tax increases in the midst of an economic decline to pay for more failed stimulus spending.  The president also reiterated that Democrats will increase taxes during the worst economy in decades, claiming that “we can’t afford” to prevent tax increases.  While the president has proposed some tax cuts for businesses, the issue most important to small businesses is the $3.9 trillion tax increase that will impact every taxpayer beginning on January 1, 2011.  If President Obama wants to create jobs and restore confidence, he should stop the entire $3.9 trillion tax increase.   Instead, the president restated his intention to increase taxes on job-creators.  Make no mistake, these tax increases will kill American jobs.  According to the National Federation of Independent Business, 75 percent of small businesses are organized as pass-through entities (sole proprietors, partnerships, and S Corps), suggesting their business income is subject to the individual tax rates.  The American people want new ideas for getting our economy back on track, not the same warmed-over stimulus and bailout policies that have failed to do anything but create new taxes, record deficits, and high unemployment.

In his speech in Parma, Ohio, on September 8, 2010, President Obama announced his new $50 billion stimulus spending plan.  This proposal, in reality, is not new at all.  Spending billions of dollars on new stimulus projects rehashes the same big-government policies that this administration has offered since taking over the White House.  Time and time again, wasteful federal spending has failed to create jobs.  Below is a timeline of the Democrats’ “stimulus” plans that have passed in the House as unemployment hovered near 10 percent.

• February 13, 2009:  The House approved H.R. 1, the $1.2 trillion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, better known as the “stimulus” bill.  At the time, the unemployment rate was at 7.7 percent and the president promised that the bill would create 3.5 million jobs and unemployment would not eclipse 8 percent.

• December 16, 2009:  The House approved H.R. 2847, the Jobs for Main Street Act. The bill contained nearly $150 billion in new stimulus spending.  The unemployment rate was 10 percent.

• March 4, 2010:  The House approved Senate amendments to H.R. 2847 under the moniker, Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act.  The bill included $17.6 billion for new tax and bond credits, touted as necessay to spur job creation.  At the time, the unemployment rate was 9.7 percent.

• March 23, 2010:  The House approved H.R. 4849, the Small Business and Infrastructure Jobs Tax Act, which included $42.6 billion new stimulus spending.  At the time, the unemployment rate was 9.7 percent.

• May 28, 2010:  The House approved H.R. 4213, the $102 billion American Jobs, Closing Tax Loopholes, and Preventing Outsourcing Act.  The unemployment rate was 9.9 percent.

• June 17, 2010:  The House approved H.R. 5297, the Small Business Jobs and Credit Act of 2010.  The bill included $30 billion for banks to make government subsidized loans to small businesses, even though TARP Congressional Oversight Panel reports suggested that the lending facility may have little or no effect on small business credit access or job creation.  At the time, the unemployment rate was 9.7 percent.

• July 29, 2010:  Democrats pulled H.R. 5893, the Investing in American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act, from floor consideration prior to a vote on the bill.  The bill contained $7 billion in new federal infrastructure spending.  At the time, unemployment was 9.5 percent.

• August 10, 2010:   The House approved Senate Amendments to H.R. 1586, containing a total of $26.1 billion in temporary state bailouts paid for with permanent tax increases.  In August, the unemployment rate once again rose to 9.6 percent.

The results are clear: the Democrats have run out of ideas about how to get the economy moving in the right direction.