12.13.11

Sessions On Fox: President’s Policies Threaten The Middle Class

WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, appeared on FOX News’ “America’s News HQ” today to discuss how President Obama’s policies are hurting hardworking taxpayers, including on the issues of debt, energy, trade, and illegal immigration. Excerpts from the interview follow:

On the lack of honest leadership:
“I felt this president has a duty to lead selflessly. He needs to tell the American people the truth, [that] the greatest threat to the middle class and all of us is the debt over our country… This president needs to be speaking the real truth about the danger that debt and overspending and a bloated government is creating. How it is hammering the middle class…”

On debt and overspending:
“He has not discussed that in any way and his proposals continually borrow more to spend more. It is putting us in exactly the wrong direction. And I also believe he has a host of things he could do to help the middle class, which is being hammered and is being damaged today, that would not add to the debt, that would help America grow and prosper. We need that kind of prosperity, not a tax-and-spend, big-government generated prosperity that has never worked and won’t work now.”

On blocking American energy production:
“He is not creating lower cost, more American energy. He is blocking the Keystone Pipeline. These are things that do not hurt the Treasury, do not cost money, but create real jobs for middle-class Americans… It is a defining moment for the middle class. Every state through which it goes now will support the pipeline… I think it is the right thing to do and I’m amazed, flabbergasted, stunned that the president won’t move forward with that. He also slowed dramatically drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, where huge reserves are. This creates American wealth and keeps us from having to send money to Venezuela or Saudi Arabia or foreign countries and creates jobs in America and we all know… if we take advantage of that, we can bring down the cost of energy and make American industries more competitive and it will bring in new tax revenue… It seems to me there is no real logical basis not to move forward now… There are quite a number of Democrats I believe that would like to support the pipeline and believe it is the right thing for America.”

On illegal labor depressing wages:
“He continues to allow illegal immigrants to take jobs from Americans… A number of Democratic senators know that illegal labor coming in at low rates pulls down middle class wages, and [they] have been willing to stand up on that.”

On abusive trade practices:
“We need to stand up to China. [President Obama] refused to do that and support currency balancing and fairness with China… a lot of Democrats also know that we need to stand up to foreign trading partners who cheat, particularly China who manipulated their currency. As a matter of fact, I worked with a lot of Democrats on that issue and we won that vote in the Senate but the president won’t support us.”