Coats: President Should Offer Plan to Fix Debt Crisis, Grow Economy
“While jobs and the economy received barely a passing mention in his second inaugural address, I hope President Obama will focus on specific ways he will work with Congress to fix our nation’s fiscal house so we can strengthen our economy and help Americans get back to work.”
WASHINGTON, DC – Senator Dan Coats (R-Ind.) today spoke on the Senate floor about what he hopes to hear from President Obama during his State of the Union address on Tuesday.
Audio and video of the speech is available by clicking here or on the image below.
The following are excerpts, as prepared for delivery, from his speech:
“What is the state of our great nation? Today, America is nearly $16.5 trillion in debt, an increase of $6 trillion since the president took office in 2009. Today, we are borrowing $40,000 per second. Today, more than 12 million Americans are looking for work and that doesn’t include the countless numbers of people who have given up looking altogether. Today, critical benefits and programs that our seniors and retirees need are on track to go bankrupt.”
***
“While jobs and the economy received barely a passing mention in his second inaugural address, I hope President Obama will focus on specific ways he will work with Congress to fix our nation’s fiscal house so we can strengthen our economy and help Americans get back to work.”
***
“The president keeps promising the American people that he will reduce the debt and deficit through a ‘balanced’ approach. However, whenever he is asked for a plan all we hear is a call to raise taxes. The president got what he wanted in the fiscal cliff – approximately $620 billion of new taxes, which will be added to the many new taxes hitting Americans as a result of his health care law. In fact, included in Obamacare is one trillion dollars in new taxes and nearly $500 billion of that will directly affect the middle class.”
***
“There is no doubt that Americans need and deserve some of the critical benefits our government provides including Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Many Americans have spent years paying into some of these programs and expect and deserve those benefits to be available when they need them. Unfortunately, at the current rate of spending, that will not be the case for future generations when they retire if we don’t address this issue.”
***
“I also hope the president addresses specific ways to grow the economy and create jobs -- and that does not mean more stimulus-like spending. We need pro-growth policies such as comprehensive tax reform and regulatory reform to spur the economy. By removing unnecessary regulatory burdens and by simplifying the tax code to make it fairer and more competitive, we can usher in a new period of economic growth and bring new opportunities to many unemployed Americans.”
###