Washington, DC – Idaho Senator Jim Risch released this statement following President Obama’s speech to a joint session of Congress tonight.

"Our economy is stalled, job numbers are stagnant, and the President’s proposals are simply a recycling of what he tried before.  The last stimulus bill cost almost $1 trillion and we still lost 1.7 million jobs.  We cannot afford to keep doing the same thing.

"It is time to do what we have done for over two hundred years and what the President acknowledged tonight.  He said, 'Our recovery will be driven not by Washington, but by our businesses and workers.'  I agree.  We need to turn the private sector loose, remove the stranglehold of regulations, lower taxes and get the government out of the way so the private sector can create jobs."

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