Republicans move for stimulus package free of spending

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

It may seem like magic to some these days that one could stimulate the economy without spending a nickel, but that’s exactly what Senator David Vitter (R-LA) and 40 other Congressmen are proposing. A bill to be introduced concurrently in both the Senate and the House would provide revenue and create jobs by drilling for oil domestically. The focus of The No Cost Stimulus Act of 2009 would be primarily energy, because in addition to further tapping domestic gas and oil reserves, it would streamline the process for creating nuclear power plants, which the bill sponsors say would create jobs. According to the sponsors, it would also lessen EPA regulation of CO2 under the Clean Air Act, which the Congressmen claimed would save 500,000 jobs annually and saves over $7 trillion in GDP over the next 20 years.

Congressman John Shadegg (R-AZ) said that currently we are outsourcing our energy production, providing jobs to regimes such as Russia, Venezuela, and Saudi Arabia, when these very same jobs can be done domestically with our reserves.

The specific regions to be further tapped for their energy potential include the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) and ANWR, which the Congressmen estimate alone would create nearly 2 million long term high paying jobs.