Congressman Kurt Schrader (OR-05) released the following statement in response to President Obama’s final State of the Union address tonight. Schrader entered office in 2009, when Obama was sworn in for his first term as President.
“Our country is in a much stronger position than it was 7 years ago. We’ve added over 14 million private sector jobs since 2008 and in the last two years have experienced the strongest private sector job growth since 1997 to 1999. Unemployment has dropped from 10 to 5 percent. Millions of Americans how have health care. These achievements should be celebrated, but work still remains.”
“Trade is the next big economic boost for Oregon and I was encouraged that the President put a strong emphasis on increasing U.S. trade. This is of particular importance to me as Oregon is the 7th largest export state and much of our agricultural community is heavily dependent on trade.”
“However, our country still faces stiff obstacles and, in a partisan environment, those obstacles have proven difficult to overcome. Our economic recovery is fragile and small businesses are encumbered by onerous regulations that cut into their bottom lines and limit their growth. We need to focus on expanding innovation and make it easier for entrepreneurs to get their businesses off the ground to create good-paying jobs.”
“Our debt and deficit are unsustainable and both Congress and the Administration have ignored the long-term consequences of our spending. We just passed a huge, unpaid-for, special interest tax break and $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill before the holidays, thinking only of short-term benefits and not of our children and grandchildren who will be the ones shouldering this massive debt.”
“True progress has been made since I was elected to Congress including the passage of the Affordable Care Act, overhauling No Child Left Behind, correcting a decades-old issue with Medicare reimbursement rates so seniors can actually see their doctors, and passing a long-term transportation bill for the first time in ten years. But the President was correct in pointing out we have more to do. Now is not the time for Congress to slow down – we should seek to make this year as productive, if not more so, than last year and push forward commonsense, bipartisan solutions to America’s greatest challenges.”
