Iowa Congressman Steve King, a Republican from Kiron, says tax rebates should not be part of an economic stimulus plan being debated in Washington today. King, who represents the fifth district, says the current downturn in stocks is nothing more than the market experiencing a correction period. King says tax rebates adding up to 145-billion dollars will eventually have to be paid back.
King says to borrow money from our future and put the bill on the heads of our children, so that you can ask people to go out and each spend 800 dollars is not right, as he says you can’t spend yourself into prosperity. King says making the president’s tax cuts permanent and expanding investment credits for the nations’ small businesses will recharge the economy.
Congressman Bruce Braley, a Democrat from Waterloo, says he hasn’t seen enough details of the stimulus plan to make an opinion on it just yet. Braley says for many of the people at the margins of society, or in the middle class, "simply providing a small tax break is not going to be the type of help they need in order to make it through what some people are calling the beginning of a recession." Braley says there also needs to be some sort of stimulus that impacts people where they live.
Braley says people in his district tell him higher insurance and gas prices are impacting them the most. But he says these are not problems that can be solved quickly. He says the leadership has made it clear that the stimulus they are interest in is going to be " targeted, timely and temporary." Braley says they’re listening to ideas from the leadership and the White House, but he thinks they are a longs ways away from a bipartisan stimulus package that’s going to "reach the real concerns of the American people." Braley represents Iowa’s first district.