Louisiana congressman Rep. Steve Scalise, R, attacked the Obama administration’s economic plan at an appearance in the Hippodrome Tuesday night.
Scalise told the more than 100 GW College Republicans assembled that Obama’s weak plan for economic recovery will give Republicans the opportunity to gain support for their policies. Scalise disparaged the Obama administration’s stimulus bill, saying, “I don’t call it a stimulus bill. It’s a spending bill.”
Scalise argued that the bill will cause government money to be spent frivolously.
“There is more money in the bill for planting grass in Washington, D.C., than there is helping small businesses in this country,” he said.
Scalise said he thinks Obama’s stimulus bill is too similar to Bush’s bailout plan, which he also opposed, and that both plans fail to free up credit markets and help the economy.
The biggest problem with Obama’s plan for economic recovery is the national debt it will create, Scalise said.
“Everybody in this room is going to be inheriting that debt. Each and every person in this room will probably inherit another 4,000 dollars in debt from that bill,” he said.
Scalise also took time to praise the Bush administration, saying the former president did a great job at protecting our country from terrorist attacks since Sept. 11, 2001.
“I don’t think anybody would’ve taken odds in Vegas on that after Sept. 11,” he said.
Scalise encouraged the young Republicans to remain hopeful, even in the face of last fall’s defeat. He said that if Republican politicians stick to their conservative values, they will succeed.
“I think the reason we lost in 2006 in the House and in the Senate is a lot of Republicans abandoned their conservative principles,” he said.
He believes Republican power will prevail when Obama’s policies do not succeed.
“I really think that if you look at where the American people are, it’s a lot closer to where conservative views and philosophies are,” he said. “I just don’t think we’ve had the right kind of leadership in the last few years to articulate it.”
Freshman Rebecca Reed agreed with Scalise that Republicans need to re-establish their views and policies to the public.
Reed said, “We will have to work a lot harder to promote the Republican message for what it really is and not what the media has said it is for the past eight years.”
