WASHINGTON — Senator Jeff Sessions joined many of his Republican colleagues in blasting President Barack Obama’s final State of the Union Address, saying the President’s “policy agenda on trade, crime, immigration, spending and debt all have one common feature: they make life harder for working Americans and put the country at needless risk.”
But in addition to his criticisms, Sessions laid out a policy vision for the next President that he believes would get the country back on the right track.
“With wages down, record numbers not working, and crime rising in cities across the U.S., the next person to occupy the oval office will have to chart a dramatically different course,” he said.
According to Sessions, that course must include:
1. “Immigration control and reduction”
This one will come as no surprise to anyone who has followed Sessions’ rise as the GOP’s top immigration hawk. In 2007, Sessions was widely credited with blocking then-President George W. Bush’s effort to provide legal status and a pathway to citizenship for roughly 12 million illegal immigrants. The Alabama senator’s outspoken position on illegal immigration has continued during the Obama administration. He now chairs the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration and The National Interest, a perch from which he has worked to stem the flow of immigration, which he believes is suppressing Americans’ wages and damaging the middle class.
2. “A dedicated effort to reduce crime and prosecute armed career criminals and drug dealers”
Although Sessions’ immigration push has garnered the most headlines, he has also been a leading advocate for law enforcement. Last year he partnered with Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) to introduce the Thin Blue Line Act, which would enforce harsher penalties on individuals targeting police officers and first responders.
3. “Canceling the sovereignty-eroding 2 million-word Trans-Pacific Partnership, and rebuilding our manufacturing core”
During his State of the Union Address on Tuesday, President Obama said the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would “open markets, protect workers and the environment, and advance American leadership in Asia.” Sessions has said repeatedly that TPP is just another multi-national trade agreement in which “big business” gets what it wants while American workers get the short end of the stick.
4. “Welfare-to-work: celebrating the dignity of work, and helping our own people move from welfare to good-paying jobs”
During a Senate Budget Committee hearing last year, Sessions said the federal and state governments spend a combined $1 trillion each year on means-tested welfare programs, with only 1 percent of that spending going toward job training programs.
“Imagine if we reprogrammed more of those funds for job placement and apprenticeship programs,” he said. “This would help transition millions from dependence to independence—without denying benefits to a single person in need. Our goal is simple: whenever possible, help someone to find a good-paying job that can support a family.”
5. “Adoption and implementation of a balanced budget plan”
Sessions has called the United States’ nearly $19 trillion debt “a national calamity.”
“We were told this dangerous taxing and borrowing would spur economic growth,” he said. “But growth over the previous 4 years has averaged only 2.2%, about half of what the White House projected… Never has so great a sum been spent for so little.”
6. “Repeal of ObamaCare”
Congress finally sent a bill fully repealing ObamaCare to the President’s desk last week. He promptly vetoed it. Assuming Republican maintain control of both chambers of Congress, the outcome could be different with a Republican in the White House.
7. “Creating a smaller, leaner and less costly bureaucracy”
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) in 2011 laid out “34 areas where programs have overlapping objectives or provide similar services” and “47 other areas where Congress could take steps to improve the efficiency of federal programs and agencies,” according to CNN.
The GAO report estimated “savings and revenues could result in tens of billions of dollars in annual savings, depending on the extent of actions taken.”
8. “Streamlining the tax code, making it easier to keep jobs and wealth in America”
Wholesale tax reform remains a dream for conservatives, but it does not look like it will have a shot unless a Republican wins the White House.
“Getting it done in 2016, that’s not going to happen because Barack Obama is president,” said House Speaker Paul Ryan.
9. “Tapping into our vast energy resources”
After Congress refused to pass Cap and Trade, President Obama chose to implement his liberal environmental agenda through the executive branch, particularly the EPA. The results have been crushing to American energy companies, particularly those in the coal industry.
“Median income is down in America per family by $2,300. Your wages are down, your job prospects are down, unemployment remains exceedingly high, and we are now going to add in effect another tax, a regulatory tax on the price of energy so a person’s electric bill and their gas bill is going to go up?” an exasperated Sessions asked in 2014. “That’s the inevitable result of [the newly announced EPA regulations].”
10. “Restoration of the constitutional rule of law.”
Enough said.
