Garret Graves Reports on 1st 100 Days

Garret Graves Reports on 1st 100 Days

BATON ROUGE – Newly-elected Sixth District Congressman Garret Graves reported on his first 100 days in office at the Chamber of Commerce of East Baton Rouge meeting last Tuesday at Café Américain, 7521 Jefferson Hwy. Here are some of his remarks:

•Congress is making some limited progress on the budget.  The Obama administration budget was $500 billion out of balance and provided no hope to balance the budget over the next 10 years, even though he proposed $2 trillion in additional taxes.  Graves favored a budget, which would set spending at a level that would balance the budget within five years.  Instead, the House passed a budget with spending levels that would balance the budget in the next nine years.  This was not what was needed but was an improvement over the Obama proposal.

•Congress passed a Taxpayers Bill of Rights, making it easier to comply with the Tax Code.

•The House passed legislation to prohibit abortion after 20 weeks, or when the unborn child is believed to be capable of feeling pain.  This was the 2nd pro-life bill passed so far this year.

•The Obama administration has been very aggressive in promulgating harsh, anti-business regulations this year, and more can be expected over the next 18 months.  Congress has responded by passing legislation requiring the administration to consider not only direct costs of regulation on small business but also the indirect costs.

•The House tried to pull back Obama’s amnesty plans but the Senate hasn’t gone along.  We must pull back on amnesty and reform the legal immigration system.

•We should allow the five states on the Gulf to regulate red snapper fishing.  The administration is only allowing 10 days of fishing for red snapper a year.  The science on this is flawed.  It is another example of their reliance on bad science.

•The House has passed the Junk Science Act which would require the administration to justify their science. At present, they make statements about science but they refuse to publish the scientific basis for their decisions.

•The Obama administration is violating the Constitution by trying to take citizens’ property without just compensation.  One way is by trying to prohibit construction within the so-called 500-year flood plain.  In other words, if they think it might flood on a piece of property at some time over the next 500 years, you can’t build there.  This is a taking of property without compensation.

•Free trade isn’t really free trade.  So-called free trade agreements around the world are working to our disadvantage.  Importing energy is responsible for half our trade imbalance.  This benefits Iran and ISIS.  For trade to be free, it must be fair.

•We should amend the Constitution to require a balanced federal budget.

•The Obama administration is trying to vastly expand its power by claiming that any puddle of water is part of the “Waters of the United States.”

•Obama warps the interpretation of laws.  This is what a dictatorship looks like.  We are having to include language in bills that not only explains what they mean but what they don’t mean.

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