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February 21, 2008 07:58 am
Inhofe details recent disagreements with Bush
By Carol Cole-Frowe
CNHI News Service
NORMAN, Okla. — Sen. Jim Inhofe hasn’t agreed with the president several times lately.
The Republican senator said he was especially dismayed when President George W. Bush said he’d veto the Water Resources Development Act or WRDA, which authorized $10 million for Oklahoma water infrastructure projects.
“So I announced on the Senate floor that if the president did his veto that I would lead the override effort — and I wasn’t very complimentary about it,” Inhofe said in a visit Tuesday to The Transcript. “You hear a lot about earmarks — but this was an authorization bill. Each project would have to meet certain criteria.”
Included in WRDA was the Red River Chloride Project.
“If you go down south, the Red River Chloride Project is really a huge one particularly for Southwest Oklahoma,” Inhofe said. “It allows them to use the water from the Red River for irrigation and also for drinking water. ... If they don’t have irrigation and they have a dry year, they’re dead. And they can get it up to drinking standards.”
Inhofe also didn’t agree with Bush’s economic stimulus package.
“The stimulus bill was a fraud,” he said. “You stimulate the economy the way that John Kennedy did it - by lowering marginal rates, lowering capital gains. Same thing with Reagan. He did it and Bush did it in ’01.”
He said besides lowering marginal rates and capital gains, the country should look at lowering the inheritance tax and marriage penalty.
“The (bill) that was passed, that didn’t have any of those things. It was just doling out money to people, a lot of them didn’t even pay taxes,” Inhofe said.
And then he was upset about the energy bill.
“The problem was — it didn’t have any energy in it,” he said. “In terms of producing energy, it didn’t have a lick in it. It didn’t have a component for nuclear. It didn’t have natural gas. It didn’t have clean coal technology. Right now, we’re dependent on coal for 53 percent of our energy.
“I’m not real happy with a lot of the products of the United States Senate,” he said.
Inhofe said he’s been to Iraq 27 times, more than any other senator, and feels like the United States has turned the tide and is winning.
“Even Katie Couric says we’re winning,” he said, noting that the Salmonpac terrorist training camp using a 707 fuselage for practice had been shut down. “Good things are happening there.”
He volunteered his take on the presidential race.
“I was not the McCain fan. ... But McCain is ... it’s obviously that’s over and he’s it,” Inhofe said, and lamented McCain’s differences with the conservative side of the Republican party. “He doesn’t have a lot of the credentials and beliefs that Republicans do. He’s not good on (allowing drilling in wilderness areas) ... but he’s going to change on that. I think he’s going to be much better on these things.”
Inhofe said he’s enjoying the jousting going on between the Democratic candidates and took a couple of shots at both sides.
“I don’t mean to sound sadistic, but I really have enjoyed the Hillary-Obama fight,” he said.
Clinton’s office is next to Inhofe’s senatorial office.
“She has her machine attacking him all the time and nothing seems to take, nothing bothers him,” he said.
Inhofe said as he walks down to vote, he catches comments and frustration coming from Clinton’s advisers.
“As a Republican, I’m certainly hoping that Hillary will be the nominee,” he said. “(Obama) says nothing, but he says it so well.”
Carol Cole-Frowe writes for The Norman (Okla.) Transcript.
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