Kirk: Republicans must “respect the office” and listen to President's message
In a subtle dig at another suburban lawmaker who announced plans last week to skip President Barack Obama's upcoming jobs speech before a joint session of Congress, Sen. Mark Kirk said Tuesday he plans to “be in the chamber to respect the office and listen to the message.”
Kirk declined to comment directly on McHenry Republican Joe Walsh's decision to skip the talk and head home to his 8th Congressional District to host a jobs forum instead.
While Walsh has said he doesn't “see the point in being a prop for another of the president's speeches asking for more failed stimulus spending and more subsidies for his pet projects,” Kirk said Republicans — as well as Democrats — have a duty to listen to the commander-in-chief's message.
“Even if you campaigned against the current office holder, you respect the office of the president and the role of the joint session of Congress in the Constitution and I think we should be in the chamber watching carefully,” Kirk said.
Kirk said Obama has a choice how he gives the talk.
“I think the president has a choice to make whether to do a bipartisan or partisan speech. I hope he chooses the bipartisan way,” Kirk said.
Kirk is releasing a set of 23 economic policies that he believes should be used as a “checklist” of what could be the core of bipartisan economic development legislation.
It includes a moratorium on new regulations that cost more than $1 billion, rapid submission of the free trade agreements with Panama, Columbia and South Korea, and a tax reform bill that wipes out all tax exemptions except for mortgage, interest and charitable deductions.
“The president has to realize the people elected a Republican House of Representatives and a Democratic Senate,” Kirk said. “To get his plan through the Congress you're going to need bipartisan cooperation.”
With both parties gearing up for the 2012 presidential election, bipartisanship is easier said than done.
Long before Walsh's statements, Democrats and Republicans were squabbling over which day the talk should take place — the president originally wanted it to be held on Wednesday, but bowing to pressure from House Republicans, it was rescheduled to Thursday.
Asked about that, Kirk, citing his time as a parliamentary assistant in the British House of Commons, noted joint sessions of Congress, spelled out in the Constitution, take a page from the English Civil War and when the House of Commons invited the government's chief executive into the chamber.
A joint session of Congress “comes by invitation of the (House) speaker, so that should always be worked out in private before anybody talks about a specific date,” Kirk said.