Guest Post by U.S. Senate Candidate Bill Binnie

As a successful businessman, I watched as the "old-guard" Washington politicians tried to fix our economy with a spending binge. I knew it wouldn’t work. And it hasn’t. The big spending “stimulus” package didn’t turn our economy around; it didn’t spur growth, it didn’t give hope to the jobless. Americans deserve policies that do work.

As someone with plenty of experience in the real-world economy, I know what does work. Our prosperity flows from certain key economic principles: fiscal responsibility, free markets and limited government. We need policies that will lower taxes, make government more efficient and eliminate wasteful spending. In short, we need common sense business policies. More importantly, we need to create jobs – good jobs, at good wages.

Fixing our economy won’t be easy. It will require a lot of hard work and a lot of tough decisions. It will also require having leaders in Washington who understand the real-world economy. And that’s why I am running for the US Senate.

As a businessman, I know how to make tough decisions; I know how to balance a budget; I know how to create jobs. And I will use my skills in the US Senate to make a difference. If you support my vision for America, please join my campaign. For more information, please visit: www.binnie2010.com.

Portsmouth, NH Refuses Stimulus Dollars

Here in New Hampshire, we have a new example of a city turning down stimulus money because of the unreasonable and expensive hurdles included in the legislation as a result of special interest giveaways:

As stimulating as it might have sounded at the time, the city recently declined $2.5 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for its new water treatment plant because federal wage regulations would have forced the city to pay more for the project.

Ranked as the fifth most pressing drinking water project in the state, the state Department of Environmental Services awarded the city $5 million in March 2009 for the project — half of which would be a grant, and the other half borrowed from the state's low-interest revolving loan fund. The award required the city issue an addendum to the request for bids, which was issued a month earlier, asking bidders to include the stimulus money in their proposed budgets.

When the bids came in, the low bidder — Penta Corporation — presented final cost of $21 million with the stimulus funds and $17.3 million without.

So the city said thanks, but no thanks, to the stimulus funds.

"It just didn't make sense," said Deputy Public Works Director David Allen. "It was going to cost us more money to take the money."

Stimulus' Education Parachutes About to Fail

As expected, with stimulus funds starting to peak and decline, local school systems are beginning to see trouble on the horizon:

Congress included about $100 billion for education in the stimulus law last year to cushion the recession’s impact on schools and to help fuel an economic recovery. New studies show that many states will spend all or nearly all that is left between now and the end of this school term.

With state and local tax revenues still in decline, the end of the federal money will leave big holes in education budgets from Massachusetts and Florida to California and Washington, experts said.

“States are going to face a huge problem because they’ll have to find some way to replace these billions, either with cuts to their K-12 systems or by finding alternative revenues,” said Bruce Baker, an education professor at Rutgers University.

The stimulus program was the largest one-time infusion of federal education dollars to states and districts in the nation’s history. As the program took shape last year, Education Secretary Arne Duncan and other officials repeatedly warned states and districts to avoid spending the money in ways that could lead to dislocations when the gush of federal money came to an end.

But from the start, those warnings seemed at odds with the stimulus law’s goal of jump-starting the economy, and the administration trumpeted last fall that school districts had used stimulus money to save, or create, some 250,000 education jobs.

Now the new studies point to the problems likely to beset thousands of school districts when the federal money runs out.

As localities though the nation, and here in New Hampshire, grapple with difficult budgeting choices, it will be interesting to see how this fight plays out when the federal government isn't there to cover over the underlying problem.

Spending Freeze...Literally

The folks at Political Math have a new video explaining that minuscule impact Obama's proposed spending freeze will have on the federal debt.

Just as interesting, look how much money we would save by canceling the remainder of the stimulus:

Stimulus Bill Getting More Expensive

Fox News is reporting that $787 billion has somehow turned out to be an underestimate of the costs associated with President Obama's stimulus bill:

The $787 billion federal stimulus package that Congress passed last year has gotten even bigger -- now expected to cost $862 billion, over the next 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. ...

About $21 billion of the added costs stem from higher unemployment compensation payments, while the remainder of the increase comes from food assistance payments and interest payments from states on taxable government bonds, the Washington Times reported.

In its report on the country's dire financial straights, the CBO also cites huge budget deficits, noting that the 2010 fiscal year budget is likely to reach $1.3 trillion.

This report also serves as a continued reminder of the legislation's failure to "save or create" three million new jobs:

The nonpartisan CBO report, published Tuesday, attributes the $75 billion increase to added unemployment-related costs. More Americans are receiving unemployment benefits for lost jobs that the stimulus bill was meant to save, the report says.

Seeing the Light: 56% Now Oppose the Stimulus

A new poll out today shows continued erosion of public support for President Obama's signature economic policy:

A majority of Americans oppose the economic stimulus program, according to a new national poll.

Fifty-six percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Sunday say they oppose the stimulus package, with 42 percent supporting it.

Last March, just weeks after the stimulus bill was signed into law by President Barack Obama, a CNN poll indicated that 54 percent of the public supported the program, with 44 percent opposed.

While this isn't the first poll showing more than 50% opposed to the measure, it does represents the largest favorability gap to date: -14%.

Fiscal Discipline in the State of the Union?

In "we'll believe it when we hear it" news, Bloomberg is reporting that there is a "fighting chance" President Obama will propose a freeze on discretionary spending in next week's State of the Union Address:

There is a “fighting chance” President Barack Obama will propose a freeze in most discretionary spending by the federal government in his State of the Union speech next week, Senator Evan Bayh, an Indiana Democrat, said

“The president can say in this State of the Union address, ‘I’m going to include in my budget a freeze on discretionary spending, I’m drawing a line in the sand, and I’m going to use my veto pen to enforce that,’” Bayh said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing this weekend.

Bayh, 54, said that while he wasn’t certain the president would make such a call, “I think that there’s a fighting chance that he will.”

The senator also said he expects Obama to use the Jan. 27 nationally televised address before Congress to embrace creation of a commission that would suggest spending cuts and tax increases that Congress would be forced to vote on. Bayh met this week with Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag to discuss such a commission.

Bayh said he doubts Congress would approve establishment of such an independent panel, and that Obama would have to set it up by executive fiat.

Getting the 60 votes likely needed for Senate passage of a bill to create the commission “will be very hard,” said Bayh, a second-term Democrat who will face voters in this fall’s midterm elections. He said that as a result, he expects Obama to “then come forward with an executive commission which is not as good, but is at least there’s a step in the right direction.”