Recession Almost Over, Says Bennett

Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, visited Logan Tuesday to meet with USU students, see the results of funding he brought to USU and participate in a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Bennett spoke to students Tuesday in a class for lobbyists. He gave the students advice on how to be good lobbyists and told them not to let others tell them they don’t have a right to do their work.

“First thing to remember,” he said, “the right to lobby is right in the First Amendment, next to freedom of press, freedom of speech, freedom of religion and don’t let, well I’ll watch my language, but don’t let any characters in the press tell you you’re a corrupting influence.”

Jeff Muhs, director of the USU Energy Lab, gave Bennett a tour of the labs. Michael Kennedy, special assistant to the USU president for federal and state relations, said research being conducted at the labs concerning the conversion of algae into bio-fuel has been funded by Bennett.

Tuesday morning, Bennett was given the honor of cutting the ribbon for the new Cache Valley Transit District building. Mark Daines, CVTD board president, said the new building, located at 754 W. 600 North, was built in three months by Cache Valley Builders.

According to information provided by the CVTD, the building process provided work for 33 local workers and cost about $210,000. The money was a grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which was secured by Bennett, the Federal Transit Administration Region 8, Utah Department of Transportation Public Transit and the CVTD management.

Bennett said the new building demonstrates Cache Valley’s growing population and capacity.

“You now have the mass that can use mass transit in a logical way,” he said.

During a question and answer session, Bennett addressed issues important to the nation such as health care, cap and trade and the economy.

Bennett said President Barack Obama made a standard mistake by “squandering the beginning of his term” instead of getting right to work on things such as the health care bill. Campaigning is more fun than actually governing, Bennett said, and Obama didn’t stop campaigning until well into his term.

“But campaigning doesn’t substitute for governing,” Bennett said.

With regards to the health care bill, Bennett said Obama tried to act smarter than the Clinton administration by giving members of Congress the basic principles and letting them write the bill.

Although this plan was aimed at appeasing Congress by letting them be more involved, it failed because theories began circulating and no one could agree on a single health care plan, Bennett said. Neither House nor Senate could create a logical bill before the deadline Obama had set, which was the August Congressional recess.

“President, you should have had more leadership here, have more outline of what you wanted,” Bennett said.

Bennett and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore, created their own health care plan called the Wyden-Bennett Health Reform Plan, which took four years to create. More information about the plan can be found at www.bennett.senate.gov.

Cap and trade, which Bennett referred to as a “spectacularly bad idea,” is a system in effect in Europe to handle its emissions. Bennett said if a business goes over its allowed amount of carbon emissions under cap and trade, they can buy unused portions from other businesses for about $30 per ton of emission.

While the system is functioning in Europe, Bennett said he is skeptical about its efficiency if the concept were tried in America. Utility business’ emissions are the only kind that can be reasonably measured and regulated. Bennett said cap and trade wouldn’t affect emissions released by transportation, which accounts for a large portion of America’s pollution.

Bennett also said to be on the lookout for an economic recovery. He said the recession has most likely bottomed out and the nation will see signs of recovery as soon as the fourth quarter of this fiscal year.

During his time in the Senate, Bennett said he has experienced two recessions and has learned the nation generally feels the negative effects of a recession before it occurs and will not experience the benefits of recovery until it is well under way. He said the U.S. started feeling the impacts of 2008’s recession in 2007 and will likely experience a jobless recovery until at least 2010.

Currently, in absolute dollars, the U.S. has the largest budget deficit it has ever had. However, in terms of gross domestic product the U.S. has the same budget deficit percentage as during the Regan era, Bennett said.

“If the economy comes back strongly, we can deal with the deficit and it will go away,” he said.

National debt was at 150 percent GDP after World War II, he said. The deficit is currently past 80 percent GDP, and is predicted to get to 100 percent in 2011.

“To have a deficit of that size when we’re not at war is a very, very serious thing,” he said.

Despite the economic issues America is facing, Bennett said the nation always seems to come up with the right people at the right time. He said even when cessation and slavery issues threatened to divide the U.S., it found Abraham Lincoln and survived.

“We’re Americans,” Bennett said. “We can survive, and we can thrive. This situation will be over. The recession will be over. It will be difficult, but it will end.”

Bennett urged the nation to not be too gloomy over economic issues and to continue to push through.

–rac.ch@aggiemail.usu.edu