Melancon: Stimulus halts recession

He voted for the stimulus package.

He thinks the governor was a little “hypocritical” in the Republican response to President Barack Obama’s address to the nation.

And, he has no plans to run against U.S. Sen. David Vitter in the next Congressional election.

U.S. Congressman Charlie Melancon was anything but shy on Friday as he toured the Tri-parishes.

Melancon, a native of Napoleonville, is also now co-chair of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of lawmakers who support pay-as-you-go government.

Melancon said he voted for the stimulus package because “to do nothing ensures a deep depression or, in the least case scenario, a deep, deep recession.”

The lone Louisiana congressional member to support the program, Melancon reportedly told fellow lawmakers, “If you don’t want to vote for the stimulus, I’ll be happy to take all the money for the Louisiana 3rd District.”

“Is it right? Is it wrong? I don’t know, but to do nothing is to let this country fall apart,” he said.

“I don’t know if everyone remembers 1983 around here, with the billboards that said, ‘Will the last one out turn out the lights?’, but I don’t want to visit that or worse, again,” Melancon added.

On the heels of a North American Treaty Organization tour in Brussels, Belgium, Melancon said the U.S. is not the only country battling economic woes.

“Speaking with parliamentarians from those countries, they said almost every one of them has passed a stimulus package, some putting $2 billion into their economies,” he said. “And they’re biggest fear was that the U.S. would do nothing, saying that we are the tail that wags the dog.”

Pulling a page from history, the congressman said America’s economy did not fully recover from the Wall Street collapse of 1929 until presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ike Eisenhower reinvested in the nation’s infrastructure.

And while the recent projects to be funded by President Obama’s stimulus package make it clearer what monies will be filtering into the parish, Melancon said the recovery may not be immediately felt.

“From 1983 to 1992, our economy suffered in southeast Louisiana. And the way it’s looking, we’re going to slide off that cliff again,” he said.

It will be up to the Louisiana Legislature to determine which stimulus funds will be accepted.

Gov. Bobby Jindal has indicated that he intends to pass on portions of the package, including monies targeted for unemployment compensation. Melancon said Jindal co-sponsored a bill while he was a congressman that sought to extend unemployment benefits for those who lost their jobs in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Melancon accused Jindal of falling prey to the party line in his Republican response to the nation last week. “I think that was the wrong thing for him to do and, if he was playing party politics, that was wrong.”

The congressman said he’s regularly teased by legislators on Capitol Hill who say, “Look, if ya’ll don’t want the money, we’ll take it.”

“In short, Gov. Jindal’s speech was not his best, but it is what it is,” Melancon said. “But for him to mention Hurricane Katrina, that left me puzzled. Even more so when the next day I had people come to me and say, ‘Well, hey, I guess ya’ll don’t need any more help in Louisiana,’ while we’ve been asking for three-and-a-half years for help from the storms.”

Melancon said passing on the stimulus money for unemployment benefits may cost businesses in the short term, but could exhaust the balance in the state’s unemployment account. “(Jindal) is going to have to raise taxes on businesses anyway to replenish that fund,” he reasoned.

“I’m not a fear monger,” Melancon said. “I always look at the glass as being half full, but what the nation is facing is creeping into Louisiana. I’ve talked to contractors who claim that this time next year, 300 to 400 rigs will be laid on the side. Two weeks ago, I talked to some who laid off 250 to 1,000 workers.”

Lawmakers have had the unenviable task of finding dollars to stimulate the economy while also paying for an ongoing war left by the previous administration.

“The guys that ran a surplus of $5.12 trillion into a $10 trillion deficit were the ones who have occupied that house prior to Jan. 20 for the past eight years,” Melancon said. Today, the country is paying $256 billion in interest payments to foreign countries that have lent the U.S. money.

“President Obama, on the other hand, is braver than any president I’ve ever seen,” the congressman said. “He’s saying ‘Here it is people, this is how bad it is and this is what we’re going to have to do to get out of it. … This is what it’s going to cost you.”

U.S. Congressman Charlie Melancon tells Jerome Boykin during his talk show Friday that he has no intention to seek U.S. Sen. David Vitter’s seat in the upcoming election. * Photo by HOWARD J. CASTAY JR.