Washington, D.C.  –  Rep. Phil Roe, M.D. (R-TN) released the following statement on President Obama’s trip to Chattanooga, Tennessee:

“President Obama could really learn a few things if he stuck around Tennessee. Our right-to-work state attracts businesses like Amazon, which the president visited today. We have low taxes, low cost-of-living and a balanced budget. Tennesseans know how to do things right.

“Further, our experience with our own state-run insurance, TennCare, gives the president a realistic look at what ObamaCare will do on a national level. TennCare crippled our budget, forced the Governor to scale back benefits and is now one of the most restrictive health insurance plans a person can carry. We’re already starting to see the damaging effects the president’s health law will have on our country’s economy and health care system, but Tennesseans know it will only get worse from here. If the president was truly interested in job creation in the private-sector, he would stop pushing policies, like his health care law, that burden job-creators with mountains of regulations.

“While I agree we should lower our corporate tax rate, once again, President Obama is siding with big businesses and leaving middle-class families behind. We should lower taxes, but we should do so by pursuing comprehensive tax reform that provides relief to every American.   

“The president also is once again pushing for new spending, despite a more than 800 billion dollar stimulus bill that failed to grow our economy. We need to be talking about how we can slow the explosive growth of mandatory spending, which threatens to leave future generations unable to compete in the global economy.  Lowering corporate taxes only to increase wasteful spending and leave American families to weather the storm doesn’t sound like much of a ‘Grand Bargain’ to me.

“Tennesseans have rejected these tax-and-spend policies before, and we’ll do it again. I am disappointed, but not surprised, that the president passed on the opportunity to learn more about our great state’s smart, pro-growth policies to give yet another stump speech.”