01/27/10 Congressional hopeful tells Greenwich resident Jim Himes,"Our economy needs real stimulus"

Connecticut's recession continues to get worse. Official unemployment in our state is now 9 percent, which is really closer to 17 percent when you include the under-employed. We lost over 87,000 jobs last year in Connecticut. Every middle class family has been directly or indirectly impacted by this job loss, and the federal government has failed to come up with solutions that work.

Our congressman, Jim Himes, has failed us on the economy by rubber-stamping Nancy Pelosi's big government proposals. The stimulus package passed by Washington has failed to stimulate the economy and has done nothing to stem the tide of unemployment facing our state. Ask yourself -- has your family benefited from the stimulus package? Unfortunately, the main result of the stimulus package is another $10,000 in federal government debt for every family in Fairfield County. The stimulus package has been an expensive failure.

Government cannot end the recession by spending more money. Small businesses will need to lead us out of the recession. Small business owners have created more than 90 percent of the new jobs in our state in the last 10 years. While big corporations are great to have in Connecticut, it is the little guy who really drives our economic growth. Government's role should be to set up the best tax, regulation, and legal system for small businesses to create good jobs for Connecticut families -- and I believe Washington can still take action to accomplish this goal.

First, the federal government should repeal the remainder of the stimulus package and use it to cut payroll taxes for small businesses and middle class families. Less than 20 percent of the stimulus has actually been spent, meaning there is over $500 billion just sitting in Washington. We could cut the payroll tax in half for the next year and still spend less than that. This tax cut would mean the average middle class family would receive $1,500 of their income back, and small businesses would get 3 percent of their payroll back.

Instead of the pork-barrel projects in the stimulus package, we can directly help small businesses and middle class families. Instead of give-aways to special interest groups, a direct tax cut will enable small businesses to hire more people and put money directly into middle class families' pockets. Best of all, the deficit would be lowered because the tax cut would be less expensive than the current "stimulus" package.

Second, we need to stop Jim Himes' out-of-control spending that has led to a record $1.4 trillion deficit this year. Instead, we should implement a federal spending cap to eliminate our deficit by 2015. I propose we limit government spending increases to the rate of inflation plus population growth -- about 1-2 percent under current conditions. America is projected to have a deficit of over $9 trillion in the next 10 years, but this is based on the assumption that politicians continue to grow government at 7 percent per year (which they historically have done).

A federal spending cap would force politicians of both parties to make choices about what our spending priorities are as a nation. Without a forcing responsibility through a spending cap, politicians from both parties will take the easy way out when it comes to making the hard choices we need to make about government spending. A spending cap will force the politicians to get serious about controlling government spending and entitlement reform.

We need real stimulus for our economy. Our high unemployment numbers send a clear message: Jim Himes and Nancy Pelosi are getting it wrong. My hope is that both Republicans and Democrats can work together to implement the real solutions I have proposed for small business and middle class families.

Dan Debicella is the Republican state senator representing Stratford, Shelton, Monroe and Seymour. He is seeking the Republican nomination to challenge incumbent Democrat Jim Himes for the U.S. Congress in Connecticut's Fourth District.

Source: http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/default/article/Congressional-hopeful-Our-economy-needs-real-338542.php