Bennett, lawmakers spar over 'stimulus

Utah's Junior Senator Robert Bennett became the fourth member of the state's congressional delegation in Washington to show up at the state Capitol this week. He took questions from lawmakers for about an hour Friday.

Responding to a question from Sen. Ross Romero, D-Salt Lake, about the tone in Washington since the Obama administration took over, Bennett, a Republican, said he sensed a desire, at least in the Senate, to put aside some of the "partisanship and bitterness" that has been so rampant in Washington in recent years.

He said he was consulted by congressional Democrats and many of Obama's top advisers during the change of administrations.

"I'm hoping ... we can address the challenges we face as Americans, rather than just as Republicans and Democrats," Bennett said. "The general atmosphere is that we have a very serious problem and we have to deal with it."

There was a brief semantic debate between Bennett and Sen. John Valentine, R-Provo, over last year's financial industry bailout and the recently passed economic rescue plan. Bennett kept calling the rescue plan a "stimulus" package," prompting Valentine to correct him and call it a "spending package."

"We have a hard time choking that term down," Valentine said.

Bennett said the two massive spending plans dealt with two different problems. The first was financial markets freezing up around the world and the second was a major domestic recession fueled by a housing crisis.

He said the Obama administration's nearly billion-dollar stimulus package was "not carefully or properly constructed to deal with that" and was "jammed through on an artificial deadline." He voted against the measure.

Bennett also decried the recent cancellation of 77 Bureau of Land Management oil and gas leases in the Utah by the new administration, saying the way it was handled was "outrageous."

"There can be no substantive justification for canceling them on the track record of how they were applied for and how they have been examined along the way," Bennett said.

Bennett told senators entitlement spending was the most serious long-term threat to the country's financial stability and that his discussions with younger people around the country had revealed a crisis of confidence in the nation's entitlement programs.

"More young people believe in UFOs than believe that Social Security will be there (when they need it,)" Bennett said.

Asked by Sen. Jon Greiner, R-Ogden, if he thought Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner might end up nationalizing the nation's banks as part of his new oversight program, Bennett said he could "not rule out the possibility with some banks."

Utah's Senior Senator Orrin Hatch and two Republican congressmen, Rep. Jason Chaffetz and Rep. Rob Bishop, have also spoken to members of the Legislature during the past week.