Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan charged the Republican Party with a “critical” task of fixing the national economy that he said has suffered since President Obama re-entered the White House in 2013.
In the GOP weekly address Saturday, Sullivan cited last quarter’s 0.5 percent growth in gross domestic product (GDP) as an indicator that the economy and the American Dream are “stagnant.”
“The American dream has become a mirage for millions of American families,” Sullivan said. “The average annual GDP growth rate for America is nearly 4 percent. The Obama administration’s annual rate has been about 1.5 percent; in fact they’ve never even hit 3 percent GDP growth in one quarter.”
Sullivan criticized the president for lowering the people’s expectations that the U.S. will see a full recovery during his two terms.
“He lowers expectations by calling his very weak economic record the ‘new normal.’ He has even taken to bragging about his administration’s economic record,” Sullivan said.
The first-term senator called on lawmakers and the public to turn America around, but didn’t explain how either group would undertake such a call to action except for saying a change in executive leadership was necessary.
“We have a moral imperative to recognize that we have experienced a lost decade of economic growth and opportunity, and we have to change this,” Sullivan said. “But in order to do all of this, we’re going to need a change in Washington—a change that doesn’t settle for the ‘new normal’ economy.”
Donald Trump is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Sullivan’s lack of specifics appeared to be an unofficial call for conservatives to rally around the businessman.
