U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack talks Monday to the Des Moines Register?s editors and reporters. Register photo by Christopher Gannon.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Monday he believes President Barack Obama will have more success in pursuing a legislative agenda with Republicans in Congress during a second term in the White House.
?The major political goal of Republicans during Obama?s first term ? which was to prevent the Democratic president?s reelection ? will have been erased,? Vilsack told Des Moines Register editors and reporters.? Secondly, members of Congress will face reelection again in two years, which means they will be more interested in their own future than Obama?s, he added.
?Vilsack also predicted that if Obama is reelected he will have ?enormous power in that fifth and sixth year of his administration because he will have been confirmed by the people.?
?Vilsack is a former two-term governor who is the first Iowan since Henry Wallace to serve in a presidential? cabinet post. His wife, former Iowa First Lady Christie Vilsack of Ames, is running for Iowa?s 4th District Congressional seat against U.S. Rep.? Steve King, R-Kiron.
?Vilsack said he suspects Republicans won?t win control of the U.S. Senate on Nov. 6. He believes the GOP will probably retain a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, but will? likely lose some seats held by lawmakers he described as having ?extreme? views.
??They will lose some of those tea party folks, and there is a message in that, and I think (House Speaker) John Boehner will get that message. I think (House Majority Leader) Eric Cantor will get that message.? I think they will understand that the country requires action on some of these major issues,? Vilsack said.
?In particular, Vilsack said he doesn?t believe Republicans will want to allow a so-called ?sequester? to go into effect, which he described as ?really bad policy.? Under sequestration scheduled to occur in January, a mandatory $109 billion in budget cuts will occur, which could cost nearly 1 million jobs in small businesses and ?force the nation back into a recession, according to some experts.
??If Republicans are compelled to act, Vilsack predicted the nation will see a balanced approach to budget issues that will have the potential to garner the most votes in Congress. This will include ?steep and significant? reductions in federal spending, coupled with increased revenue from people ?who have done really, really well? and will do better as the economy rebounds, he added.
??As a result of that, and as a result of the certainty of where the fiscal directive is, all that money that is sitting on the sidelines from the private sector is going to be reinvested. The economy is going to grow. So all of a sudden you have a growing economy and a leaner government and you?ve got a little more revenue and that puts you in a much better place,? Vilsack said.
??I will tell you that the formula that this president has is relatively simple, but is powerful. We will be an economy that gets back into the business of making, creating and innovating. We will be a government that spends less, but we will invest what we spend more wisely. We will become again a nation that exports, and that will rebuild the middle class from the middle out,? he said.
?He added that a ?top-down? approach to economic growth is wrong. ??It has never worked and it will never works. You have to grow from the middle out.?
?Shawn?McCoy, Romney?s campaign spokesman in Iowa,? issued? a rebuttal to Vilsack?s remarks, saying Obama promised four years ago to bring people together and break the infighting in Washington, D.C.
??Unfortunately, we?ve only grown more divided as?the President?has pushed for?controversial tax hikes on the middle class, four straight trillion-dollar deficits, and energy policies that?have caused?prices?to soar,? McCoy said. ?Mitt Romney worked across the aisle with an 87% Democrat legislature as governor of Massachusetts, and he?s ready to work with Democrats, Republicans, and independents in Washington so we can find solutions to our problems?and get this country back on the right track.?
?McCoy also said?voters already know what?Obama?delivered?with his first term?-?falling middle class incomes, rising energy and healthcare costs, and trillions in new debt that will?continue to?burden the middle class.
??President Obama has raised taxes 21 times, and he wants to raise taxes again, a decision that will cost Iowa 8,000 jobs,? McCoy said. ?When Mitt Romney is president, our nation will have pro-growth policies that foster upward mobility and grow the middle class so that the next four years will be better than the last.?
Tags: President Barack Obama, sequestration, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack
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