that would set aside $26 billion for health and education spending by states.
Known as the Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act, the bill would dedicate $10 billion to teacher salaries and another $16.1 billion to health related programs. The U.S. Senate passed the legislation on August 5, which needs House approval before being sent to the president.
Rep. Charles Djou, the only republican in Hawaii's congressional delegation, called the latest federal stimulus plan a “cynical political ploy” that delays needed reforms and rewards fiscal irresponsibility.
"There's a lot of things that we need to do in the United States Congress but spending a lot more money isn't one of them,” said Djou, before boarding a United Airlines flight from Honolulu to Washington, D.C.
Rep. Mazie Hirono said she looked forward in joining democratic Senators Dan Inouye and Dan Akaka in supporting the spending measure. She said the legislation could bring as much as $125 million to Hawaii and demonstrated the philosophical difference between the two political parties.
“Every state has huge budget shortfalls as far as I know and so this is a way for the federal government to help the states and the economy,” said Hirono, who spoke to Khon2 by telephone from Washington.
Djou and Hirono are among 433 members of the U.S. House who have been forced to interrupt their August recess after Speaker Nancy Pelosi called an emergency session.
On her congressional website Pelosi said quick passage of the bill was needed to save 161,000 teacher jobs across the country.
“The sooner this bill becomes law, the sooner school districts can rehire teachers and stop planned layoffs,” said the Speaker.
However republicans continue to beat the anti-deficit drum leading up to November’s mid-term elections. Djou argues teacher layoffs are not a threat in Hawaii since the legislature must pass a balanced budget under the state Constitution.
“The state budget passed by the Hawaii state legislature is in balance,” said Djou. “It does not contemplate any layoffs; it does not contemplate any closures of schools.
Under the state’s current contract with the Hawaii State Teachers Association, tenured teachers cannot be laid off.
However Board of Education member John Penebacker believes as many as 1,400 non-tenured teachers could be impacted if the Department of Education is forced to cut its budget for a third straight year.
"There's a great danger if we don't get additional funds,” said Penebacker. “This federal money will come at a very timely manner to keep those people employed.”
Under the Senate passed version of the bill, nearly $11.9 billion of the new spending would come from cuts to the federal food stamp program, bringing assistance back to 2009 levels. Another $9.8 billion would be raised through tax increases on U.S. corporations.
Djou spoke strongly against the tax provisions contained in the bill, saying any increases would be born by consumers and hurt the U.S. economy. The freshman congressman also expressed concern about the exploding national debt, which is currently pegged at $13.3 trillion.
“Right now the national debt has ballooned to $39,000 per person,” said Djou.
“I am very troubled that we may be the very first generation in American history to leave the next generation worst off because of this mountain of debt that we have no plan to pay back.”
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