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Senator Roger Wicker makes weekly Republican address to the nation regarding oil spill response  | | Senator Roger Wicker addressing the nation |
“Hello,
I am Senator Roger Wicker from Mississippi. As we enter the third
month of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, we continue to learn more and
more disturbing information about gross negligence on the part of BP --
and about some proposals from the Obama Administration that will do
more harm than good. “From the Oval Office
Tuesday night (June 15), President Obama attempted to recover from a
widespread perception that he has not made this crisis a priority. The
public outcry about the president’s inattention has been loud and it
has been bi-partisan. I’m glad President Obama is finally putting this
catastrophe at the top of his agenda, but his response has been too
slow. He was slow in listening to state and local leaders, slow in
getting skimmers to the Gulf, slow in understanding the seriousness of
this crisis, and slow in taking ownership and responsibility for the
recovery. Many of his actions have actually taken us in the wrong
direction. “Earlier this week the president came
to the Gulf Coast. After visiting with him in Mississippi, I was
optimistic that he was removing politics from this disaster and
focusing solely on fixing the problem. Republicans in Congress and at
the state level looked forward to participating in a bipartisan,
non-political solution to the many challenges this disaster has brought. Unfortunately,
we were disappointed. In less than a day, we were reminded of Rahm
Emanuel’s theory of never letting a good crisis go to waste. “In
his speech Tuesday night, President Obama made it clear that he intends
to exploit this crisis to push his liberal agenda for a cap and tax
scheme. This is a disservice not only to the victims and their
families but also to the millions of Gulf Coast residents who are
struggling in the wake of the spill. “Americans
increasingly reject the cap and tax proposal because it would drive up
the cost of energy and force American jobs overseas. The president
spent more than a third of his address advocating this national energy
tax, revealing his true priorities. Now is not the time to push a
controversial, job-killing, partisan agenda through Congress. In
addition to devastating our economy, this proposal would do nothing to
fix the disastrous leak or clean up our beaches, marshes, and waters. “Another
idea that takes us in the wrong direction is the Democratic plan to
increase oil cleanup fees and raid those funds to pay for unrelated
programs. These funds are needed to clean up spills, not to satisfy
Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi’s desire to raise federal spending. “In
addition, the administration’s moratorium on deepwater drilling has the
potential to become the third wave of this disaster. If left in place,
the moratorium will permanently eliminate thousands of jobs and drive
up the cost of energy for all Americans. You don’t have to take my word
for it. Earlier this week Democratic strategist James Carville said the
moratorium was [quote] ‘wrecking the economy’ of the Gulf Coast.” “Along
with the spill’s devastation to our fisheries and the administration’s
decision to halt our drilling, one of the greatest threats to the
economy of the Gulf Coast is the loss of tourism. Our hotels and
restaurants have seen business decrease by as much as 70 percent. At a
brief press conference on Monday, President Obama pointed out that
there are a lot of beaches that are not affected and will not be
affected. I was hoping the president would make this important point to
the larger audience Tuesday night, but since he didn’t, I’ll say it
again. The vast majority of Gulf Coast beaches are clear, beautiful and
safe. “BP CEO Tony Hayward recently said he
wanted his life back and later correctly apologized. BP put dollars
before safety, and we are all paying the price. We have been told that
BP will be held accountable and pay all damages. “But
what we in the Gulf states really need is to have our way of life
back. We want our jobs back, our economy back, and we need our
tourists back. “So please come and visit us. You deserve a vacation, and we could use the business. Thank you.” |
