Press Release: Legal Lines with Locke Meredith

Guest: Senator David Vitter, Show # 103

Attorney, Locke Meredith, interviews United States Senator David Vitter.  Senator Vitter is going to discuss several issues including the national health care plan, our national debt, and others.

Senator Vitter was present for President Obama’s inauguration, and despite their differing political parties, found it to be a very moving and significant move for our country.  In Obama’s first State of the Union Address, Senator Vitter was glad to hear President Obama directly address spending and debt, two huge problems he see’s in our economy.  However, Senator Vitter did not agree with President Obama regarding his stance on TARP or the stimulus.

Next, Meredith and Senator Vitter discuss party majority in the House of Representatives and Senate.  Until Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts was elected recently, the Democrats had a super majority (sixty out of a hundred) in the Senate, and a majority in the House of Representatives.  Furthermore, the President is a Democrat, so essentially no Republicans were needed to pass any legislation on Capitol Hill.  With Senator Brown being elected, the Senate now contains only fifty-nine democrats.  Bills need sixty votes to pass, so now the Democrats no longer could pass legislation without the consent of the Republicans.  One example of this is the healthcare bill, which received zero of the forty Republican votes in Senate, but still passed.  Meredith and Senator Vitter both point out the further significance of Senator Scott Brown’s election, noting that Massachusetts is a very liberal state, and that they have now elected a Republican Senator.

Senator Vitter talks a bit about his background.  He was born in Louisiana, then went to Harvard for undergrad, studying history, and then Oxford England to study economics and history, and then Tulane Law School.  He served in Louisiana State Legislature, then First District in Congress, and in 2004 was the first Republican Senator to be elected by Louisiana.

Meredith asks Senator Vitter what he would do, having his history background, to deal with the current economy, if he had the power to do so.  Senator Vitter responds with what he calls “three sort of obvious points.”  One is to focus on jobs and the economy.  Senator Vitter does not feel President Obama has been doing that, instead focusing too much on healthcare.  Media has said the Obama Administration has created two million jobs by the stimulus, but Senator Vitter does not agree.  Instead, he has his own idea of how to deal with our joblessness known as the No Cost Stimulus Plan.  It is an energy-based plan designed to open up our domestic resources, creating more good paying energy jobs in America, creating more revenue, and using some of this revenue to devote to new green alternative energy.

Senator Vitter believes we are becoming far too dependent on foreign countries for resources like oil, spending our money and robbing ourselves of energy jobs, while potentially funding terrorist organizations which are against the U.S.

Senator Vitter is also unhappy with the way the U.S. has been treating enemies of the U.S.  The Christmas day bomber, for example, was given an U.S. taxpayer funded attorney and treated with the same rights as a U.S. citizen, when he is clearly a foreign national.  Senator Vitter also is unhappy with the closing of Guantanamo Bay, and the trying of 911 masterminds in New York.  Senator Vitter says, however, that he is happy with the way the Obama Administration is handling the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, for the most part, and will be glad to see our servicemen and servicewomen returning home.

The next issue on the table is the national debt ceiling. Two days ago, Congress voted to raise the debt ceiling by two trillion more dollars, from twelve to fourteen trillion dollars.  Senator Vitter voted against this, but it still passed.  Furthermore, the Obama budget appears that it will double the historic debt in five years, and triple it in ten years.  Obama has addressed that spending and debt are a problem, again, in his recent State of the Union speech.

Senator Vitter is very skeptical about the current actions of the Obama Administration regarding our national debt.  Our government continues to spend more than it is taking in, meaning we are relying on selling bonds to foreign countries like China.  Senator Vitter also is skeptical of President Obama’s two thousand three hundred and thirty-three page healthcare bill.  Instead he calls for five smaller bills that are more focused and address pre-existing conditions.  Senator Vitter addresses specifically the need for people and businesses to be able to buy health insurance across state lines, which could increase competition and reduce rates.

Within the State of Louisiana, Senator Vitter has been focusing on improving the highway and infrastructure system in the Baton Rouge area, and also on improving coastal erosion in the wake of Hurricane’s Katrina and Rita.  The show comes to a close.