In the Weekly Republican Address, Senate Republican Policy Committee Chairman John Thune explains how President Obama’s economic and regulatory policies are making things worse.

Full transcript of Senator Thune’s Address:

“Hello, I’m Senator John Thune of South Dakota.

“For months now, my Republican colleagues and I have been saying that President Obama has made our economy worse since he took office.  This past week, even he admitted that the American people are not better off than they were four years ago.

“Just since his inauguration in 2009, there are two million more people unemployed, six million more people living in poverty, and 13 million more on food stamps.

“Our federal debt has increased by 39 percent.  That’s more than $4 trillion dollars.

“Because of this additional debt, every man, woman, and child in America now owes $12,000 more than they did on the day President Obama was sworn in.

“President Obama’s policies are damaging our economy, and his proposed solutions are not serious.

“His latest stimulus bill is so flawed that Senate Democrats have rejected it and are rewriting it, not to grow jobs, but to improve their political standing.

“It’s nothing but a rehash of the same failed ideas he’s already tried, combined with a huge tax increase.  This is a cynical political ploy that’s designed not to create jobs for struggling Americans, but to save the President’s own job.

“This cannot continue.

“There are common sense things that we can do to give America the freedom and the certainty to create good jobs.

“For starters, we can finally implement the free trade agreements we’ve negotiated with Panama, Colombia, and South Korea.

“Today 95 percent of the world’s consumers live outside the United States.  Washington should be doing all it can to lower trade barriers, and help Americans sell more of our products to those customers.

“Altogether, these three trade deals will boost U.S. exports by more than $12 billion.  And all that new exporting means new U.S. jobs – 70,000 of them as a result of the South Korea agreement alone.

“So I was glad to see that President Obama finally submitted the trade deals to Congress, after letting them sit on his desk for almost 1,000 days.

“It’s extremely unfortunate that we had to wait so long for the President to do something so simple, to help promote American exports, and create American jobs.

“As just one example, while the trade agreements have languished, America’s market share of wheat, corn, and soybeans sold to Colombia has collapsed from 78 percent in 2008, to 28 percent in 2010.

“Over the past 1,000 days, how many unemployed Americans might have gotten a job, if the President had just been willing to stop playing politics, and let American businesses compete?

“Republicans in Congress are ready to take up these trade deals, so Americans can get back to work.  I hope the Democrats will join us in this effort.

“And while we’re at it, if the President is finally ready to get serious about helping businesses hire more workers, he can rein in his runaway bureaucracy that seems to be doing all it can to destroy jobs rather than create them.

“His National Labor Relations Board has sued to force Boeing Company to fire 1,000 workers who are building airplanes in South Carolina.  All because the workers are not in a labor union.

“Apparently the Obama Administration would rather have people unemployed than allow them to work in non-union jobs.

“That is a destructive idea, and it sends a dangerous message to American companies looking to expand operations and to create jobs.

“Of course a business owner is going to think twice about investing in a new factory, and hiring more workers, if he or she is afraid Washington will step in and shut them down, just to appease union bosses.

“On top of that threat there is the overwhelming number of rules and regulations Washington piles on the backs of job creators.  President Obama’s administration has pushed through more than 61,000 pages of new regulations so far this year alone.

“Dealing with just these new requirements will take Americans an astonishing 82 million hours, and cost $80 billion.

“Regulations and excessive red tape kill jobs, increase our dependence on foreign oil, and impose costs that American business owners cannot afford.

“In my state of South Dakota we have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country.  That’s because our state has low taxes, fewer government regulations, and is a right-to-work state.

“The Republican plan to get our country moving again builds on these kinds of ideas.  We’re calling for a regulatory time-out, an affordable energy plan, broad-based tax reform including lower rates, and policies that provide the certainty and stability our economy desperately needs.

“Washington, under President Obama has grown too powerful, and has hurt job creation.

“Too often Washington is the problem, not the solution, and we’ve seen the results since President Obama was sworn in and started moving our country in the wrong direction.

“The President is right when he says that Americans are not better off today than they were four years ago.  And if we’re going to get off this wrong track that he’s put us on, President Obama has got to change course.

“I’m Senator John Thune.  Thank you for listening.”