Wes Hickman (202-224-5972) or Kevin Bishop (864-250-1417)

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) today made these statements on the stimulus package the Senate will vote on later today. 

“The stimulus package creates more government than jobs. The original goal was to work together to create jobs and stimulate our economy.  It’s clear we have failed miserably in that endeavor.”

Lack of Bipartisanship:

“There was never a real effort to find common ground.  We’re spending $1.1 trillion over the next ten years and we never had a thoughtful discussion to figure out how we could come together on something with bipartisan support.  The idea that this is bipartisanship does not meet any realistic test of bipartisanship.

Lack of Job Creation Provisions:

“About seventy percent of the jobs in our nation are created by small business.  If our goal was to crate jobs and stimulate the economy, one of the tests should be how much did we do for small business?  Not much.  Less than $3 billion in the entire package is directed to small business.  It’s one of the areas of the bill where the focus missed the target by a country mile. 

Untimely Spending to Create Jobs and Stimulate the Economy:

“There are so many things in the package completely unrelated to creating a job in the next 18 months.  Only 11 percent of the appropriated spending will be spent in the first year.  In fact, over half of the money will not be spent until two years from now.  We waste money in this bill that could have gone to shoring up the financial sector and fixing our housing problems.”

#####