Missouri lawmakers want Obama to talk about spending cuts
Posted on January 24, 2011 14:10 pm CST
3:54 PM, Jan. 24, 2011
Written by: MALIA RULON
mrulon@gannett.com
WASHINGTON - Southwest Missouri lawmakers hope President Barack Obama will talk about ways to cut spending and reduce the federal deficit when he delivers his State of the Union speech Tuesday night.
The issue is one that newly elected Republican Reps. Billy Long of Springfield and Vicky Hartzler of Harrisonville ran on, as did new Sen. Roy Blunt, also a Springfield Republican.
"I hope that's the main emphasis of his speech," Long said. "We've gotta start finding places to cut the spending. I hope that's job No. 1."
Hartzler said she's looking for some sincerity and specifics from Obama on cutting the deficit.
"I would hope he would be supportive of returning the budget back to 2007 spending levels and returning the unspent stimulus moneys," she said.
Jo Ann Emerson, who sits on the House Appropriations Committee, which is in charge of the federal spending bills that make up the federal budget, agreed.
"I definitely want to hear a commitment to reducing federal spending," she said.
Even Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, said spending is an issue Obama needs to address in his speech: "Many Americans are going to look to Washington to see if we are capable of cutting back, just like families are doing across the country."
In a video message to supporters Saturday, President Obama said he will call for spending cuts in some areas of the federal budget and greater "investments" in others, particularly education and innovation.
He will tell the nation that while the country had survived economic challenges "as tough as anything we have gone through since the Great Depression," "we are in a different place" today because of his policies.
"My No. 1 focus going forward is going to be making sure that we are competitive, that we are growing, and that we are creating jobs, not just now, but well into the future," Obama said in the video.
Tuesday's speech will mark Obama's second State of the Union address and the first since Republicans took control of the House.
"I would think that he'd speak with a different tone," Emerson said, adding that she hopes the president "acknowledges the need to work together" and addresses the need to have civil discourse.
"Heated (debate) is fine as long as it's respectful," she said.
In the wake of the Jan. 8 shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and the killing of six others, some members have called for toned-down political rhetoric.
McCaskill said she too wants the president to emphasize the importance of maintaining "this newly restored sense of civility and bipartisanship."
"I hope my colleagues will be able to continue this sense of cooperation and bipartisanship as we get into the inevitable heated discussions about upcoming legislation," she said.
Some lawmakers say that as a show of bipartisanship, they will break with tradition and sit together in the House during Obama's speech, Republicans next to Democrats, rather than Republicans on the right side of the chamber and Democrats on the left.
Blunt, for example, announced via Twitter that he plans to sit with a Democratic senator from Maryland: "Caught up with Senator (Ben) Cardin this morning and we decided to sit together Tuesday at the State of the Union," he said.
As for what he's hoping to hear from the president, Blunt spokeswoman Amber Marchand said, "Senator Blunt is interested in hearing the president's solutions for creating private sector jobs, driving down the national debt, and cutting the out-of-control spending in Washington."
Freshmen lawmakers Long and Hartzler had not made plans to sit with Democrats.
"I'm just hoping to find my way through the tunnels to get to the chamber," Hartzler said. "I'll worry about who I'm sitting next to when I get there."
Said Long: "I'm going to sit on the right hand side. If they (Democrats) want to come over and sit there, that's fine by me."
Contributing: Chuck Raasch, Gannett Washington Bureau
http://www.news-leader.com/article/20110124/NEWS06/110124032/1007/NEWS01/?odyssey=nav%7Chead
Malia Rulon, 1/24/2011