Press Release: Legal Lines with Locke Meredith
David Vitter
Show # 123
Attorney Locke Meredith talks with United States Senator, David Vitter, a senator for the State of Louisiana. Vitter discusses his role as a senator, and his ideas on our national debt and other issues our nation is facing.
Vitter is one of two senators representing Louisiana, along with Mary Landreau. Vitter explains that in the Senate, you need sixty of the one hundred votes to get most things passed, while the House of Representatives only requires a simply majority. Forty percent of Louisiana’s revenues come from the Federal Government. Senators get together to form groups called caucuses. Vitter founded an immigration caucus called the Border Security and Enforcement First Caucus. These are conservative senators who want to strengthen the borders and strengthen workplace security versus amnesty programs. Vitter also serves on several committees such as the Environment and Public Works Committee, the Armed Forces Committee, the Small Business Committee, and the Banking Committee.
Vitter’s educational background is in economics, with a degree from Harvard and Oxford, as well as being a Rhodes Scholar. Vitter talks next about a filibuster. This is a threat any senator can make, which is a threat to hold up movement on legislation
and require the Senate to go through all the procedural hurdles. Vitter is currently using a filibuster threat toward a proposal to a pay raise to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. Vitter believes Salazar is costing gulf energy workers their jobs and thus does not want to see his salary increase. Ever since Obama lifted his drilling moratorium, issued after BP oil spill, drilling permits have continued to be hard to obtain. This is under Salazar’s jurisdiction.
Vitter and Meredith then switch to talking about the economy, both National and State. Unemployment is at 9%, still high, but including underemployment and people who have stopped job hunting, it is around 15-20%. Vitter believes the National Stimulus was really a failure in terms of job creation, only adding to our national debt. Furthermore, Standard and Poor’s is considering dropping their credit ratings of the U.S. Government, meaning our Government will face high borrowing costs, as well as will its citizens, us.
According to Meredith, the U.S. Government’s tax revenues are $2.2 Trillion annually, while our spending is $3.5 Trillion, a 40% difference. This calculates to $128,000 per federal income tax-payers in America. Government spending appears to be a serious problem in America, but Vitter has proposed solutions for it. Medical, Medicaid, and Social Security represent two-thirds of our National Debt.
Vitter wants more restrictions on our budget, a new spending plan, not an increase in debt ceiling. His proposal is called the 3-D Act or proposal. The three d’s stand for domestic jobs, domestic energy, and deficit reduction. Vitter proposes we invest more in our energy production here in the U.S, which could in essence save us from spending money in the Middle East on oil, and create jobs here in America. Vitter also has a proposal about immigration which would increase the number of requirements on illegal immigrants to get granted U.S. citizenship. Instead of simply being granted citizenship if they are born on U.S. soil, Vitter proposes that at-least one of their parents be a citizen, green card holder, or active military.
