WASHINGTON, Feb. 21 (UPI) -- The $787 billion U.S. economic stimulus bill was "railroaded" through Congress and written in "a backroom," a Republican Party spokesman said Saturday.
U.S. Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan, the ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, delivered the GOP response to U.S. President Barack Obama's weekly radio and Internet address by blasting the process by which the Democratic-led Congress "railroaded" the measure.
"Despite promises of openness and transparency, it was written in a backroom and rushed through Congress so quickly that few -- if any -- members of Congress read it," Camp said. He cited "billions that could go to scandal-plagued groups like ACORN" -- a grassroots voter registration group often accused by Republicans of perpetrating fraud -- as an example of lack of oversight.
Camp said Republicans were looking forward to Monday's Fiscal Responsibility Summit at the White House as a chance to urge Obama and congressional Democrats to "solve those problems … in a responsible way that does not burden our children and grandchildren with a mountain of debt."
