California Conservative

Here’s Rep. Patrick McHenry’s response:

I am encouraged by what I heard tonight from the President. He rightly criticized “short-term gains” at the expense of “long-term prosperity.” This was my primary concern with the stimulus bill produced by Congressional Democrats, too much expensive pork and not enough real stimulus.

I stand ready to work with President Obama to “make the hard choices to bring down the debt,” as he put it. The President told inspiring stories of ordinary Americans who are making hard choices. We should follow their lead together, and if we do, we can win fiscal responsibility for taxpayers and build a stronger economy.

The President can start by vetoing the Democrat majority’s large increase in discretionary government spending, the biggest since the Carter Administration. It didn’t help matters then, so why should we expect any different now?

The way to build “a new foundation of lasting prosperity” is not to continue spending lavishly on things that do not help Americans weather the storm or stimulate economic growth. Taxpayers simply cannot afford it. A $2 trillion debt is not a means to lasting economic prosperity.”

Here’s Rep. Kay Granger’s reaction to President Obama’s speech:

I deeply appreciate the President’s address to Congress this evening. There is no mistaking the serious challenges facing our country, both on the domestic front and internationally as we continue to tackle a troubled economy and a continual threat of terrorism.

All along, I, and my House Republican colleagues, have expressed our desire to work with the President. Reducing the deficit and controlling spending are areas we are firmly committed to working on with the President. However, we cannot ignore the impact that raising taxes and significant cuts to our Armed Forces will have on both our economy and national security.

Roughly 64 percent of those who are scheduled for a tax increase are small businesses. Job creation and growth will be severely stressed if we continue to ask our small business owners to bear an even greater burden to pay more in taxes during this tough economic time.

I remain confident and look forward to working with the President to get our economy back on track.”

Here’s Rep. John Sullivan’s reaction to President Obama’s speech:

President Obama has pledged to cut the federal deficit in half during his first term, a tall order considering he doubled the deficit in one day by signing the largest spending bill in our nation’s history into law, only to follow that up with an Omnibus spending bill this week that increases spending by almost $32 billion over last year. Government is growing, agencies are expanding and new government programs are a dime a dozen as the Democrats focus on spending in the 111th Congress.”

There must be a mechanism to take wasteful spending off of the table. I recently introduced legislation which can put his ambitious call into action. H.R. 1023, the Federal Agency Program Realignment and Closure Act, creates a bipartisan commission designed to combat runaway federal spending, by reforming government agencies and programs and it will put Washington on notice that the days of an unaccountable and wasteful federal government must come to an end, and ultimately save taxpayers untold billions of dollars.”

The 111th Congress will also present a chance for President Obama’s administration to put its own stamp on a comprehensive energy policy America so badly needs. However, some of the policies being suggested by his administration and the Democrat controlled Congress could have a chilling effect on the price we pay to heat our homes and fuel our cars in tough economic times, placing jobs and American made energy resources at risk. Washington must always remember that business keeps our economy going, not government; we cannot allow unreasonable and excessive government regulations on our businesses during troubled economic times. As the only Oklahoman on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, I stand ready to ensure that Oklahoma has a seat at the table and will fight to ensure that our state remains a leader in the energy sector.”

President Obama is right in that our nation is dangerously reliant on foreign oil, which is why I support an “all of the above” solution to our energy needs. I believe it is imperative for our country to expand refining capacity and increase onshore and offshore production of our domestic sources of oil and gas, clean coal, and safe nuclear power sources so that we can regain control of our own energy needs and lower the cost for consumers, while incorporating renewable sources such as non-food source biofuels, and wind and solar power into our existing energy portfolio.”

We are a strong nation, filled with resolve and we will overcome whatever adversity comes our way, that is what America does best. Now is the time to put partisanship aside and to put the federal government back to work for the people. My Republican colleagues and I stand ready to work with President Obama to achieve this common goal.”

A good way to summarize President Obama’s speech is to say that he’s staked out a position of fiscal responsibility after he’s signed the massive Generational Theft Act into law, after proposing hundreds of billions of dollars in bailouts and after he’s proposed bailing out homeowners who made bad decisions or who overbought and overborrowed.

President Obama’s staking out a position of fiscal restraint after that spending splurge is akin to a bank installing cameras after the bank’s been robbed 3-4 times. It’s a ‘better-late-than-never’ gesture. It’s just that he should’ve staked out the fiscal restraint position from his inauguration, then held fast to it.

Rep. McHenry was right in expressing his displeasure with the excessive wasteful spending in the Generational Theft Act. That bill is filled with payoffs for the Democrats’ political allies. The Democrats wisely deny that it’s a pork-based bill, though it doesn’t withstand close scrutiny.

SIDENOTE: Rep. Joe Sestak told Sean Hannity last night that there isn’t any wasteful spending in the bill. Rep. Sestak denied that money was appropriated for building a high-speed rail between Disneyland and Vegas. He denied that money would be spent on saving the marsh mouse in Speaker Pelosi’s district. I’d love to know how he’d explain the line item in the bill simply marked SCIENCE.

Something that’s bothering families and markets alike is the Obama administration’s ignoring tapping existing conventional energy supplies. Families and markets understand that gas prices will jump again the minute the economy recovers. Families and markets understand that big increases in gas prices are justifiably characterized as hidden tax increases to families. They know that saps families’ and businesses’ buying power.

All of President Obama’s happy talk about alternative energy solutions and fiscal restraint isn’t playing well with the markets:

Stocks added to losses on Wednesday after data showed the pace of existing home sales unexpectedly fell in January, while bank shares slid on continuing worries over the fate of the sector.

The tone was set early by disappointment President Barack Obama shed little new light about how his administration would stabilize the economy in a major speech before Congress.

Financial experts aren’t buying what President Obama is selling. It’s that simple. They’re betting that his calls for fiscal responsibility are empty gestures. They’re betting that his reliance on green cars won’t help us get through the energy crisis that they think is lurking just a few months away. They’re also betting that the bailout a week M.O. of this administration won’t significantly improve the economy.

The lesson that President Obama must learn quickly is that one-time tax rebates won’t inspire confidence and that the fastest way to inspire confidence is to get out of the private sector’s way.

President Obama’s speech last night didn’t suggest that he’d learned any of those lessons. That’s why the stock market’s reaction is the most important reaction to President Obama’s speech last night.

Technorati Tags: President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, Joe Sestak, Pork, Democrats, Stocks, Patrick McHenry, Kay Granger, John Sullivan, Fiscal Restraint, GOP

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 at 9:51 am and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Economy, Obama, Pelosi, Taxes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.