Says focus should be on economy not Leno appearances and NCAA basketball tournament
WASHINGTONU.S. Sen. John Cornyn a member of the Senate Finance Committee today called on President Obama to make fixing the economy his top priority. He also discussed the AIG bailout bonuses during an interview on Fox News Channel. Excerpts are below:
Tim Geithner has been the only person whos been nominated and confirmed to a senior position at Treasury. Yet they are the ones responsible for trying to get the economy back on track together with the Federal Reserve. So I think thats one of the reasons for the confusion because there seems to be no priority no focus and a lack of attention on job number one which is to get the economy back on track. Thats why I think youre seeing all these miscues and mistakes.
I think more people are asking Im asking where Mr. President is the plan? Where is the focus on the number one priority which is the economy?
What kind of message does it send when the President appears on Leno? And when the President is more concerned about making his picks for the NCAA basketball tournament?
I would say Mr. President its the economy. Where is the focus? Less attention on appearing on Leno less worrying about March Madness. Lets get with the plan lets get people in place to execute the plan. And I think wed be in a better place.
I think what weve seen is a continuation of the campaign. But campaigning and governing are very different and I think it takes hard work and it takes rolling up your sleeves and getting focused on the number one priorities. And I have just not seen that from the Administration.
Republicans were frozen out of the conference committee and basically very little Republican support in passing the stimulus. Sen. Dodd has said he inserted these provisions in this stimulus bill which protected these bonuses. There may be some reason for that - we really havent heard them. And I think of course the President signed it. Now he and others have claimed theyre outraged that this is all happening but they need to look in the mirror at whos responsible for it."
