Sen. Ken Salazar addressed roughly 100 people at the Denver Forum in the Oxford Hotel Friday afternoon, telling them he is optimistic about the nation’s ability to recover from the current financial crisis.
“I am optimistic that America’s best days are still ahead, especially when we look at how our parents were knocked to their knees during the Depression and World War II. Yet they stood back up,” he said.
Salazar voted in favor of the $700 billion rescue package, telling the crowd, “This isn’t a Wall Street problem, it’s also a Main Street problem. The San Luis Valley and Saguache County have a 10.1 percent unemployment rate. Conejos and other southern counties have a 9 percent unemployment rate. Farmers and ranchers are having trouble getting operational lines (of credit).”
He said Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke told him personally that doing nothing might have caused a recession lasting 10-20 years.
“So we passed the package with two important stipulations: one was to hand the money out in an installment plan, with the first payment of $250 billion. Congressional action is necessary for the other payments.
“And two, was to set up oversight of the package through an outside entity that reports to Congress.
“Most economists say they agree with us in passing this package. But it’s just the first step. In November, Congress will vote on an economic stimulus package for a number of projects including bridges and roads. This will create thousands of jobs.”
He said media reports of numerous add-ons to the package are wrong, that only two important provisions were added on: tax relief through the alternative minimum tax which could affect 23 million families; and a jobs creation package providing tax credits for research and development and for incentives to use alternative sources of energy; both of which are related to the recovery package, he said.
Salazar strongly favors the move toward alternative sources of energy, saying the amount of money spent overseas for oil is becoming a matter of national security.
He also said the lack of health insurance coverage has become a crisis, with some 860,000 Colorado residents having no insurance.
In an unrelated matter, Salazar said Congress two weeks ago extended for another year the moratorium against the U.S. Army expanding its Pinon Canyon maneuver site.
“We will keep it that way until the Army justifies to us its need to expand the site,” he said. Originally, the Army said it wanted to expand the existing site of 237,000 acres by 1 million more acres. That’s been reduced to an expansion of 100,000 acres now, he said.
Mike McPhee: 303-954-1409 or mmcphee@denverpost.com
