Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele released the following statement on President Barack Obama signing the stimulus bill:

"Americans looking for jobs and struggling to pay bills will be disappointed by the spending package written by Congressional Democrats and signed by President Obama today. The transparency and bipartisanship that President Obama promised the American people was sacrificed to pass a pork-laden bill without any public review or meaningful Republican support.

"In these difficult economic times, it is imperative that Republicans and Democrats work together to create new jobs and grow the economy. Instead, Congressional Democrats worked behind closed doors to write legislation that will fall short of creating the promised new jobs, but will guarantee a larger debt burden on our children and grandchildren.

"Republicans are unified in our disagreement with Congressional Democrat leaders and President Obama on this bill. It all comes down to this - the Democrat plan focuses on putting Americans on the public dole, while the Republican plan focuses on putting America back to work.

"The Republican Party stands ready to work together in a bipartisan manner with the Democrat leaders in Congress and the President. Hopefully they will learn from the mistakes in this bill and be interested in true bipartisan efforts in the future."