Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman released the following statement after President Obama’s outlined his plan to stimulate our nation’s economy:

“In his speech tonight, the president set forth a very good plan for the country.  As he pointed out, job creation needs to be our focus this fall.  Congress wasted too many months focusing on other issues this year, and Americans are anxious to have us turn our attention back to the economy.

“I agree with the president that we need to keep in place tax incentives that encourage businesses to hire workers, and that we can create jobs by investing in our nation’s roads and bridges.

“I also agree that one of the fastest ways to stimulate our weak economy is by extending unemployment benefits to those who cannot find work.  This will not only help keep food on the tables of American families, it will create demand in the economy and therefore support good jobs.

“I believe we will not be able to fix our long-term economic problems if we don’t act now to stimulate jobs creation.  Longer-term, we will need to put in place a deficit plan that gets us back to a balanced budget.  We had one at the end of the Clinton administration and we can get there again.

“I hope that in the coming weeks we will get the bipartisan cooperation we need – and that Americans deserve – to get our economy back on track.”