Minnick has his own stimulus proposal

U.S. Rep. Walt Minnick talks about the alternative stimulus bill he and others are proposing.

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Story Published: Feb 6, 2009 at 11:34 AM PDT

Story Updated: Feb 6, 2009 at 11:34 AM PDT

By Greg Meyer

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WASHINGTON, D.C. - The honeymoon may already be over. At least any honeymoon that may have existed between so-called fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats and President Barack Obama.

Among those Blue Dogs is freshman Idaho Congressman Walt Minnick. Minnick and some of his colleagues are pushing an alternative to the White House stimulus package, a package that Minnick says spends too much over too long a period.

Minnick's bill is called The Strategic Targeted American Recovery and Transition Act (START Act) of 2009.

"The biggest difference is that I've cut out everything that doesn't create jobs in this year and next," Minnick said Thursday. "It's only $174 billion, $650 billion less than what the House passed and probably $750 billion less than the trillion dollar bill the Senate is talking about. It focuses on infrastructure spending, there's $70 billion on bridges, roads and school construction and there's $100 billion on tax cuts to middle and low income people.

Minnick said his proposal would spend all the money by the end of 2010, while the White House proposal would only spend 30 percent of the larger amount they're proposing.

Minnick also used the term depression when talking about the current state of the economy.

"Well we're headed in that direction unless we can get the banking and financial system functioning and some jobs created in the private sector," said Minnick. "My priority would be let's get the banks functioning and let's spend a limited amount of money on creating jobs now and worry about the other desirable projects later."

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