Top House Republican calls for spending freeze

(The Republicans still don't understand that the stimulus needs to make up for the spending consumers can no longer do because of lost jobs, etc. Or else they are playing politics. If we are not in a depression now, a freeze would certainly send us into one. A sufficiently large stimulus will keep us from getting stuck in another Great Depression. -- Gus)

March 6, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) — The top Republican in the House is seizing on the latest spike in unemployment to call for a freeze on government spending and to urge President Barack Obama to veto a $410 billion spending bill.

Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the jump in unemployment to 8.1 percent and the loss of 651,000 jobs in February is a sign of a worsening recession that demands better solutions from both parties.

Boehner criticized the spending bill as chocked full of wasteful, pork-barrel projects. The Senate postponed a vote on the bill until Monday amid the criticism.

Boehner said he hoped Obama would veto the bill. He urged the president to work with House Republicans to impose a spending freeze until the end of this fiscal year.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.