By Robert Pore
robert.pore@theindependent.com

Fueling his doubts, he said, is the fact that the government will have to borrow the money to make the stimulus package possible.

"I'm going to reserve my final decision about how I'm going to vote, but it appears what I'm going to vote on goes well beyond any rational economic stimulus justification," Hagel said.

Recent government reports show that the country's economic growth is stagnant and consumer spending is down, Hagel said. The Federal Reserve has made significant interest-rate cuts in the last two weeks to make borrowing less expensive.

"There's no question that our economy is weak, and we may well already be in a recession," he said.

Earlier this week, the House passed its version of an economic stimulus package at $146 billion. The Senate has added another $50 billion to that price tag.

Hagel said the White House has already expressed opposition to the Senate package because of its extra cost. The White House and the House of Representatives negotiated the package that the House approved earlier this week.

"I think both bills are wrong-headed and are not focused on where we need to be," Hagel said.

He said the Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts will help stimulate the economy, however.

"This will stimulate the economy by private-sector borrowing, which really is the only way to get back on track because that represents more jobs, better income and more consumption," he said.

But the key to revitalizing the nation's ailing economy is to restore confidence in it.

"When an economy is in trouble, many times it's because of a lack of confidence that the markets have, that investors have and consumers have in the future," Hagel said. "We have to reignite that confidence."

But, Hagel said, "I never believe you do that by flying over cities and towns and dropping $300 and $500 rebate checks."

He is concerned about the length of time it takes for the government to issue rebate checks and the source of the money.

"It's money we don't have, and we are going to have to borrow that money," he said. "That means that we are all going to go deeper in debt and we are going to have to be responsible, at some time, for paying that off."

Hagel said that money is borrowed from other countries that have large cash reserves.

"So we actually hurt ourselves by going into more debt," he said.

Many of the add-ons to the stimulus package, Hagel said, "go well beyond what a lot of people can justify."

He said just spending the rebate on consumer goods isn't the answer to stimulating the economy, especially when most of those consumer goods come from countries where we are borrowing the money to pay for the stimulus package.

"Some of these issues can't be fixed by a quick, one-time deal," Hagel said.