HOUSE Republican Leader John Boehner

Washington, Feb 3 - House Republicans and 11 House Democrats voted “no” on the trillion-dollar “stimulus” bill written by House Democratic leaders, on the grounds it is packed with hundreds of billions in spending unrelated to job creation and economic growth, borrowed from America’s children and grandchildren.  And despite declining public support for the proposed legislation, the Senate version of the bill is also loaded with billions in deficit spending that won’t create jobs.

Here are some of the spending items congressional Republicans have identified in the Senate version as unrelated to significant job creation:

- $20 million “for the removal of small- to medium-sized fish passage barriers.”

- $25 million to rehabilitate off-roading (ATV) trails

- $34 million to remodel the Department of Commerce headquarters

- $70 million to “Support Supercomputing Activities” for climate research

At the beginning of the year, President Obama made clear that the goal of this economic recovery process was a bipartisan bill focused on job creation.  But refurbished federal office space and fish passage barriers was probably not what he had in mind.