Lee sets up Web site to track spending he considers wasteful
Rep. Chris Lee is using the Internet to keep track of what he considers unnecessary government spending in the federal budget and other legislation.
The Clarence Republican has set up a “Washington Waste Watch” Web site to spread his message that the federal government is burdening future generations with the debt from today’s overspending.
“We need to start invoking fiscal restraint, or else this will drag on for years,” Lee said after a news conference Monday at Erie Community College City Campus.
The Web site — which can be found at chrislee. house.gov — will highlight wasteful government spending programs with new entries each week, Lee said.
The freshman member voted against the stimulus package that passed Congress last month, arguing it is bloated with spending and doesn’t provide enough tax relief.
However, the head of an economic research institute said the stimulus package takes the right approach in paying for infrastructure projects and extended unemployment benefits.
“This is exactly the kind of stimulation of demand that government is supposed to do,” said Bruce L. Fisher, a visiting professor and director of Buffalo State College’s Center for Economic and Policy Studies.
Lee’s main criticism is that the spending approved in the $787 billion stimulus package and in the $410 billion spending plan that passed the House last week will drive up the national debt for years to come.
He complains the spending bill contains 9,000 earmarks — requests by lawmakers for funding of projects in their districts.
Lee told The Buffalo News that he did not request any earmarks in the spending bill, though he does not know if projects for his district ended up in the spending plan. The plan covers government operations through the end of September.
Lee admits that the Bush administration, working with a Republican-controlled Congress for much of the time, ran up an extraordinary debt.
But he cited data from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimating that the government could run up deficits totaling $12.9 trillion between 2009 and 2019 — four times the amount for the Bush years.
“I’m amazed that more Americans aren’t up in arms. So I’m going around the district and on the House floor” to create awareness, said Lee.
Lee’s Web site includes a figure for the total national debt, with a calculation of the share assigned to each local resident. It also includes links to the Web sites of groups that watch government spending.
Lee said the stimulus spends too much on new government programs and doesn’t put enough money in the hands of taxpayers and business owners.
However, Fisher, the former deputy Erie County executive, said the spending in the stimulus is one of the best ways government can spark the economy.
The key is getting money into people’s hands, by extending unemployment benefits and investing in capital projects that put vendors and contractors and other workers on the job.
The projects included in the stimulus package — pre-approved roads, schools and water and sewer systems, for example — are worthy investments even if the government has to borrow the money to pay for them, Fisher said.
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