Perlmutter Comments On President's Address To Joint Session Of Congress

Statement

Below are Rep. Ed Perlmutter's comments regarding the President's first address to the Joint Session of Congress.

"Tonight, the President talked about the tough economic times our country is facing and laid out some of the choices we are going to have to make together to see us through. But, we are a strong nation, and I believe the plans President Obama and his Administration are presenting will help us meet these enormous challenges. There are brighter days ahead for all of us, and I will work hard with my colleagues in Congress to lay the foundation for long-term economic growth in energy, transportation, technology and healthcare.

The American people deserve honesty and solutions, and President Obama's speech gave us both.

He addressed the skepticism about our economic recovery, and told us how each of us is going to be responsible for making it work. And we will be able to track every dollar that is spent putting this country back to work again at www.recovery.gov.

He addressed the credit crunch and told us how our banks will start lending again to provide auto, college and small business loans.

As the President said, it's not about the banks, it's about people. And, the President told us specifically about the housing plan that will help responsible home owners take advantage of lower interest rates and save nearly $2,000 a year on their mortgage. He said he is going to hold banks accountable and warned that we have to act now.

He talked about his budget blueprint to be released on Thursday. I'm hopeful this will be the beginning of saving and investing in future long term sustained economic growth. Specifically when it comes to investing in alternative and renewable sources of energy, President Obama knows we have to support development of the critical infrastructure which will lessen our dependence on foreign oil because we all know it's good for national security, good for the climate and good for jobs.

Quite simply in this area, we must be the leader in the world. Just like when we committed to landing a man on the moon - the only thing holding us back is our own imagination.

In the last two months, Congress and President Obama have taken unprecedented steps to help keep people in their homes, help them pay for college and help people afford to retire when they want to. In the coming days, I will work with both my Democratic and Republican colleagues in the House Financial Services Committee on regulatory reform issues to help restore confidence in our financial markets, rebuild our infrastructure, recover our prosperity and in the President's words ‘emerge stronger than before'."

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