Congressman Eric Massa Issues Response To State Of The Union Address

Statement

Following President Obama's State of the Union Address, Rep. Eric Massa issued the following statement:

"We need to cut spending across the board and a spending freeze may be one way to go about doing this, but I'd like to see the finer details of the President's plan first. The best way we can reduce our spending and return to fiscal responsibility is by ending our welfare payments to Afghanistan and its narco-government, which has already cost us billions of taxpayer dollars. If we are really going to implement a spending freeze across the board for all domestic programs, perhaps we should put the cost of both wars on budget and then cap unnecessary portions of non-emergency defense spending as well. The Pentagon's annual budget is too large to ignore in any meaningful discussion of budget reform and, as a member of the Armed Services Committee and Homeland Security Committee, I will be aggressively pursuing cuts in programs that don't work while strengthening those that do."

"I agree with the President that we need to support our veterans when they come home and I hope he will join me in supporting mandatory full funding of the V.A. to ensure that nobody can play politics with the benefits that our troops have earned."

"I think that we need to take aggressive action to hold bailed out Wall Street banks accountable, and I too would like to see community banks initiate lending. I look forward to working on legislation to meet these goals, but right now we do not have a bill from the President in hand to judge."

"I am glad that the President wants to increase exports, however I think the only way we can actually get there is by finally addressing the failure caused by our continued policy of open door free trade agreements like NAFTA and CAFTA. As I've repeatedly stated in the past, I will never stop fighting for Fair Trade legislation to hold our trading partners to the same standards that we hold ourselves to so we can finally end the outsourcing."

"I look forward to working to improve the educational system for our young people. I recently held a forum with several local school superintendants and will be voicing their concerns directly to Education Secretary Arne Duncan in the coming days so we can shape legislation that cuts costs and improves the quality of the education our next generation receives."

"As I've been saying for months now, I think it's time to simplify health care reform and I'm pursuing legislative options to do this."

"The best way to address the problem of lobbyist influence and the damage of the recent Supreme Court Decision is through comprehensive Clean Money/Clean Election reforms."

"The recession is not over and we need to consider several options to reduce our deficit while creating jobs. Strengthening our economy and helping create jobs with companies in my Congressional District has been and will continue to be my primary focus this year."

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