CEI Commends Sen. Judd Gregg

Wayne Crews, CEI’s Vice President of Policy, made this statement about Senator Judd Gregg’s withdrawing his name as the nominee for Commerce Secretary:

Congratulations to Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) for standing on principle and withdrawing his name as U.S. Commence Secretary nominee.

The easy path would be to stay in the job, and enter the history books as holder of one of the most prestigious titles in American government and society.

While Congress seems recklessly bent on “stimulating” this nation off an economic cliff, not just Gregg but the whole country should reject the idea that America can spend its way into prosperity. In fact, spending and decades of mixing of politics with free enterprise in virtually every realm of private endeavor has damaged this country’s economic prospects to a now-incalculable extent.

President Obama taunted critics by saying “Doing nothing is not an option.” In fact, this package does active damage, which is worse than nothing. Congress has received ample advice from numerous quarters on how to actually stimulate a faltering economy whether through tax reform, regulatory freezes and reform, liberalizing infrastructure and more. It has chosen to ignore pro-free enterprise reforms—reforms that would actually do something–at every turn.

This anti-stimulative piece of legislative wreckage posing as “stimulus” is an opportunistic and politically motivated abomination unrelated to economic recovery. We can’t know the full motivations of Sen. Gregg, but we do commend his refusal to legitimize the stimulus or be a part of it and its destructive aftermath.

I often tongue-in-cheek grant a Least-Objectionable Legislator (LOL) Award. Sen. Greg certainly warrants that distinction for this courageous move.

If only more politicians in Washington could stick to their principles like Senator Gregg.  We salute you sir!