Grassley Reacts to President Obama's Speech Before a Joint Session of Congress

Statement

Senator Chuck Grassley tonight released the following statement after the President's speech before a Joint Session of Congress.

"What the President's saying is more of the same, especially with what was in the stimulus bill. That massive government spending bill passed two years ago, right after the President took office, and was touted by the administration as a way to keep unemployment below eight percent, which it hasn't by a long shot. When we've tested something like that, and it failed, we need to try something new. That something new would be to remove the tremendous anxiety that Congress, the President and Washington lately are creating for employers throughout America, in businesses small and big. Employers don't know what's coming next in the way of regulations and higher taxes. As a result, they're understandably reluctant to spend the trillion dollars that's now sitting in corporate treasuries. The cash flow of small businesses needs to be protected, or they can't hire anybody new. We've got to free up that corporate money and the entrepreneurial spirit to create economic activity and jobs.

"The best way for Congress and the President to lessen that anxiety is to make a serious effort to get rid of duplicative, outdated regulations and really consider the economic impact of forthcoming regulations before reflexively moving them forward, as in the Environmental Protection Agency's proposed dust regulation, which doesn't reflect an understanding of farming and the economic impact on rural communities; to make sure the biggest tax increase in the history of the country, which everyone knows is coming on December 31, 2012, doesn't happen; and to get under control the excessive government spending that's tripled the national debt over the last two years. I'm willing to work with the President to make things happen, but that doesn't mean more of the same. In the end, the President inherited a very bad economic situation, but by any measure of the economy, including inflation or unemployment or deficit spending, his policies and programs have made it worse. We want the President to see that what he's tried hasn't worked and for him to work with Congress to get the economy turned around."

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