Richard Shelby

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RealClearPolitics (starts about 3:00 in)

"Well I don't think you can convince the American people that you can bring the people from Gitmo to their states and they will be safe..."

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Bill: H R 1256 

Vote description: H.R. 1256 As Amended; Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act
Result: Passed, 79-17, with 3 not voting.

Date/time: June 11, 2009, 2:27 p.m. 

Republican: Yes
Richard Shelby

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From an interview:

WALLACE: All right. Let's get to our main topic, "Government Motors," big financial stakes, big bailouts for all the financial companies, a public health plan.

Senator Shelby, you say that the Obama administration is taking us down the road to socialism. Explain.

SHELBY: Well, obviously, so they interviewed last fall in the bank crisis. No one has ever done it on that scale before. Now the automobile crisis -- now, Bush -- you have to go back to the Bush administration. They started it.

Now you're talking about a massive health care plan while we're trying to right our economic ship. I believe that there's no doubt that we're going down to government intervention everywhere, government ownership, unprecedented in this country.

And it's the wrong road and it's a road -- and it's a slippery slope.

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Top Republicans say banks should be allowed to fail

John McCain and Richard Shelby, two high-profile Republican senators, said Sunday that the government should allow a number of the biggest U.S. banks to fail.

"Close them down, get them out of business," Shelby, the senior Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, said on the ABC television program "This Week With George Stephanopoulos." "If they're dead, they ought to be buried."

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From CNN:

"Close them down, get them out of business. If they're dead, they ought to be buried," Sen. Richard Shelby, the Ranking Republican on the banking committee, told ABC's This Week. "We bury the small banks — we've got to bury some big ones, and send a strong message to the market." He did not mention any banks by name, although he responded to a question about Citigroup by noting that "Citi's always been a problem child."

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From Shelby's Website:

“Now, less than one year later, we are looking at spending $825 billion to create or sustain three to four million jobs. That comes to approximately $217,000 to $275,000 per job. With the average national salary at approximately $40,000 a year, does that sound like good economic value?

“Most importantly, Mr. Chairman, we must remember that Congress does not have access to a secret vault of money. The $825 billion has to come from somewhere, and that somewhere will have to be taxed or borrowed out of the economy in order to be repaid, burdening each of our children and grandchildren with thousands of dollars in new debt.

“As Harvard economist Robert Barro pointed out in the Wall Street Journal last week, the government cannot create wealth out of thin air.

“This bill is not stimulating the economy – it is simply more spending. Spending that is forcing our nation much further into debt.

“As we continue the debate on how to best stimulate the economy, we must focus on long term economic growth.

“We simply cannot spend our way to prosperity.

“While many have proposed massive new federal spending to solve our economic problems, history shows us that this type of quick fix provides few, if any, short term benefits with tremendous long term costs.

“There must be a better way.

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Congress must consider every option to alleviate the tremendous burden current gas prices are placing on Americans.

Demand for oil continues to grow while instability in the Middle East continues to make its supply unpredictable. One important measure that I believe we can implement to reduce Middle Eastern oil dependency is by stepping up domestic energy production in environmentally sensitive ways.

In response to increasing gas prices, some have advocated raising taxes on energy producers. Unfortunately, this would lead to an increase in energy prices for consumers. Because of this, I do not believe this action would be in the best interest of my constituents.

We must explore all economically viable energy sources for tomorrow. However, we should not do so by further increasing the cost of energy today. Because of the high costs and regulatory red tape associated with constructing a new refinery, Americans must import about 1 million barrels of gasoline every day. While we are researching and developing alternative energy sources for tomorrow, we must streamline the permitting process for refineries today. I support energy legislation that provides a plan to move the United States toward energy independence without placing an unfair burden on Americans' wallets.

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BLITZER: What about that, Senator Shelby? You speak with some authority on these issues. The argument has been made repeatedly that there really was a very limited terror threat coming from Iraq when Saddam Hussein was in power, but it's, obviously, grown more intense over these past four years precisely because of his removal as a strong man, in effect, of that country. What do you say? 

SHELBY: I think what you just stated is a fair statement, a summation of basically what the truth is. The terrorism has grown in Iraq. Before Saddam Hussein was overthrown, he had a strong hand on Iraq. He controlled everything there. There was nothing -- he was the powerful dictator.

Now everything's at risk in Iraq, terrorists are everywhere and that's one of our big challenges. It's an asymmetrical war, something we've never seen before.

CNN