GOP RESPONSE

McDonnell delivers GOP response to Obama address

The Associated Press
© August 8, 2009

RICHMOND

Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell on Saturday delivered the GOP response to President Barack Obama's weekly radio and Internet address.

In the address, Obama argued that overhauling the health care system is essential to the country's economic well-being, using better-than-expected jobs numbers to press his top domestic priority.

Republicans countered that the high unemployment rate — 9.4 percent in July — shows how families and businesses are struggling and that Obama's reliance on a large government role in expanding health coverage is the wrong approach.

A net total of 247,000 jobs were lost last month, the fewest in a year and a drastic improvement from the 443,000 that vanished in June as the U.S. tries to pull out from the worst recession in decades.

"We've begun to put the brakes on this recession and ... the worst may be behind us," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday. He cited Friday's Labor Department report that showed a dip in unemployment, but said, "We must do more than rescue our economy from this immediate crisis. We must rebuild it stronger than before."

He added: "We must lay a new foundation for future growth and prosperity, and a key pillar of a new foundation is health insurance reform."

Countering the Democratic position, Bob McDonnell, the Republican nominee for Virginia governor, argued that the new Labor Department report was "yet another reminder that families and small businesses are struggling as unemployment remains high."

In the GOP's response address, McDonnell sought to draw distinctions between Republicans and Democrats on economic and health care policy.

"As Republicans, we believe you create jobs by keeping taxes and regulation low, and litigation at a minimum. Americans succeed when government puts in place positive policies that encourage more freedom, and more opportunity," he said.

McDonnell also said that, unlike Democrats, Republicans are committed to helping the uninsured — "not through nationalizing the system with a costly government-run plan, but rather by supporting free-market incentives and helping small-business owners make coverage more accessible and affordable, and ensuring that Americans can keep their individual private policies."

In his response, McDonnell also discussed his concerns over the federal cap-and-trade legislation, which he said would amount to a "new national energy tax." He said officials at the Mead Westvaco plant in Covington told him two weeks ago that the legislation would threaten almost 1,500 jobs.

McDonnell is facing Democratic opponent Creigh Deeds, who this week held a fundraiser in Northern Virginia featuring Obama. In a statement, Deeds said that McDonnell is focusing on federal issues rather than issues facing Virginia.