StimulusBill.org

Article by Kent Hoover from business journal:

The House passed a $787 billion economic stimulus bill Friday by a 246-183 margin.

No Republicans voted for the legislation.

Senate passage of the 1,071-page American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (H.R. 1) is expected either late Friday or early next week.

The legislation includes billions of dollars in spending on items including infrastructure, education, tax breaks for individuals and businesses, help for unemployed workers and aid for state governments.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., says the bill can be “summed up in one word: jobs.” The White House estimates the legislation will save or create 3.5 million jobs over the next two years.

Republicans contend the bill will do little to help the economy and will hurt the country in the long run because of the debt burden it will add to taxpayers.

“This legislation will not put people to work right away,” says House Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va. “Nor does it contain the time-honored incentives for work, investment, innovation and job creation that are proven to stimulate growth.”

Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, concede the bill is not perfect but says no legislation is. If anything, he said, the legislation is not large enough because of cuts made to win Senate approval.

“You show me a smaller problem we have to confront, and I’ll be happy to produce a smaller bill,” Obey says.

Two of San Antonio’s Democratic members of the House applauded the passage of the economic stimulus bill.

“This bill may not bring full recovery to our country but it will help begin to repair the damage done to our economy,” says U.S. Rep. Ciro D. Rodriguez, D-San Antonio. “I voted against the bailout bill three times because there was no accountability and it bailed out corporate executives, and not the Americans who work and live paycheck to paycheck. But this bill is an investment in ourselves that we need to try to make work for Texas’ and our nation’s benefit.”

U.S. Rep. Charlie Gonzalez echoed many of Rodriguez’s comments.

“We are facing greater economic challenges than we have seen in seventy years,” Gonzalez says, “and we need the federal government to act. This is not a time for saying ‘No,’ it is a time for saying ‘Yes’ to tax cuts for working Americans and seniors. It is a time for saying Yes to helping our state governments to provide the critical services people need more than ever. And it is a time to say Yes to protecting or creating more than 3 million new jobs.”