Top Republican: Obama’s stimulus little more than ‘sugar high’ for economy

President Barack Obama’s stimulus has been nothing more than a “sugar high” for the economy, a top Republican lawmaker said Wednesday.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the ranking member of the House Budget Committee, welcomed Obama to his district for a town hall meeting this afternoon, but said the president should reassess his economic policy, in particular the stimulus.

“You can spend money and create temporary jobs. I think of the stimulus as a sugar high,” he said in a conference call organized by the Republican National Committee ahead of the trip. “I would argue that there is a lot more we could do to get the unemployment rate down.”

Ryan highlighted the major job loss and unemployment rates in the Racine area, dismissing figures showing 59,000 stimulus-created jobs in the area. The top Republican argued that pumping money into a failing economy will only do so much.

“If Washington cleans up its act and gets focused on real job creation and fiscal responsibility, we can grow our economy fast,” he said. “I believe that America can get its mojo back.”

Obama is set to hammer Republicans on their record toward the economy during his speech this afternoon, seizing in particular on remarks by House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) about his financial reform plan being akin to “killing an ant with a nuclear weapon,” and Rep. Joe Barton’s (R-Texas) gaffe of apologizing to BP’s chief executive over the way the company has been treated in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

“Well, if the Republican leader is that out of touch with the struggles facing the American people, he should come here to Racine and ask people if they think the financial crisis was an ant,” Obama will stay. “He should ask the men and women who’ve been out of work for months at a time. He should ask the Americans who send me letters every night that talk about how they’re barely hanging on.”

But Republicans have looked to push back at the president over the economy on Wednesday, between Ryan’s criticism and a new report from Boehner outlining what Republicans see as the failures of the president’s signature $787 billion stimulus plan.

In a policy report released today, Boehner argues that Obama’s stimulus plan has been a complete failure in managing the economy.

“While the rest of the world seems dialed in on the need to rein in spending and impose fiscal discipline, Washington Democrats are still stuck on ‘stimulus,’ ” Boehner writes in the foreword to the report. “Rather than face facts and make tough choices, Washington Democrats have chosen to cling cluelessly to their discredited ‘stimulus’ philosophy. To keep their spending spree going, Democrats have flat-out cancelled the federal budget for the first time in modern history at a time when a fiscal blueprint has never been more badly needed.”