Blaisek Defends Stimulus Vote

Conservative senator says stimulus 'had to be done'

FARENCE, REMMINGTON--CNS Senator Curt Blaisek is defending his support for the controversial economic stimulus package, which passed both houses of Congress back in October 2009.

Not only did Blaisek vote for the $315 billion stimulus package, he helped craft the bill and negotiate a compromise between both parties on the bill's passage.

"Curt Blaisek didn't merely vote for this bill, he drafted it. He worked with the liberal Nationalists and made a deal with them to make sure this failure of legislation passed. That's wrong and that's not what the people of Remmington want," Jeff Sandham, spokesman for the Remmington Conservative Coalition (RCC), a PAC, told the STAR network.

But in an opinion-editorial piece in the Remmington Star, Blaisek defended his vote for the bill, saying it "had to be done" and was a "necessary evil."

"No one hates unnecessary government-spending more than I do," Blaisek wrote. "But when millions of jobs are on the line, you cannot simply stand on the side-lines and do nothing. You must take immediate and effective action."

The stimulus package also has numerous benefits for Remmington, the senator argued.

"This bill is going to bring more than $155 million in road projects to Remmington, over $360 million for the construction of new schools and hospitals, and more than $400 million in tax credits and government grants to businesses and homeowners over the next five years. This money is going to help out our state in tremendous ways."

But fiscal conservatives are outraged by the passage of the stimulus bill, and Blaisek is the number one target in their cross-hairs.

"Curt Blaisek campaigned on a promise of reducing government waste and eliminating wasteful spending. He was elected on a platform of lower taxes and putting more money in the people's pockets. And now he has broken his promise and turned his back on Remmington taxpayers," Sandham said in a letter-to-the-editor to the Star.

Blaisek says that although the original stimulus package was necessary to pass, he would not support passing a second stimulus bill, if proposed in the Congress.