The 60 Second Update with

Congressman John Boehner

1. Why has the President's stimulus package failed to create jobs?

The President’s trillion-dollar “stimulus” isn’t working because it wasn’t focused on creating jobs – it was focused on government spending. Even the alleged “tax relief” in the bill was just more spending targeted at people who don’t pay taxes.

President Obama promised that the unemployment rate wouldn’t rise above 8 percent if the “stimulus” passed. Well here we are with unemployment near 10 percent, roughly 3 million jobs lost since the bill went into effect, and a record $1.42 trillion deficit. Forty-nine out of the fifty states – including New Hampshire – have lost jobs. And now Democrats are kicking around ideas for another round of “stimulus” spending. Keep in mind that the federal government is flat broke, so any new spending scheme is simply a recipe for more debt, not more jobs.

To create new jobs, we need to focus on helping those who do the hiring in America: small businesses. Republicans have outlined a series of reforms that will give a boost to private employers without increasing spending or raising taxes. Our plan would work quickly and wouldn’t bury our children and grandchildren deeper in debt.

But there’s another thing to remember about the so-called “stimulus”: nobody read it. Speaker Pelosi rushed it to a vote within hours after it first went online. The same thing happened with the jobs-killing “cap and trade” national energy tax. That’s why my colleagues and I want to give Americans at least 72 hours to read legislation before a vote by Congress. It’s part of our Congressional Transparency Agenda. More transparency may not stop politicians from spending, taxing, and borrowing – but sunlight is the best disinfectant, and if lawmakers know the public can read a bill before they vote on it, they might think twice before supporting a lot of this garbage.

 Question 2. What would "Cap & Trade" do to the job market?