On the recordFebruary 23, 2010
Where are the jobs? That's what the folks in East Alabama and around the country want to know. A year ago, when the President came in, we thought he was going to do something about it. Unfortunately, his idea of remedying the problem was passing the stimulus bill, which I like to think of as the Obama slush fund/political slush fund because that's what it really is. If it, in fact, had been a stimulus bill, it would have been spent in the first year, at a minimum, instead of over 5 years. Instead, he didn't. Last month, I was encouraged when the President said he was going to focus like a laser on jobs this year. To that end, he has called for a health care summit this week. The President has got to get off his drive to push universal, government-run health insurance on the American people, and has to start talking about and working on the things that we really care about, one of which is getting our people back to work. What the President needs to do is to drop his push for government-run health care and to start working with his Treasury Department to get them and our banks lending again. Start working with our small business people to find out what kind of relief they need to start hiring again. It's about jobs, Mr. President.
