President Obama’s State of the Union speech had many of the ingredients needed to appeal to newly empowered congressional Republicans, including a call for a five-year spending freeze and ban on earmarks. But his overtures to the GOP often fell flat, with Republican lawmakers declaring that far more drastic measures are needed to reduce federal spending and make a dent in the nation’s $1.3 trillion deficit. Rep. Paul Ryan, a rising star in the party and a staunch fiscal conservative, warned that the nation’s future prosperity will be at risk if serious steps are not taken to decrease government spending — not just freeze it.
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“Our nation is approaching a tipping point,” Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman, said in the televised GOP response that took aim at the liberal Democratic agenda of the past four years. “We are at a moment where if government’s growth is left unchecked and unchallenged, America’s best century will be considered our past century.”
Obama called for some of the same proposals long championed by the GOP, including a reform of the tax code that would result in lowering the corporate tax rate. But Republicans remained critical, even as the two parties tried to display bipartisanship by sitting side by side during the speech.
“No sales job by the president about newfound fiscal conservatism is going to fool the American people, who know all too well what Obama has stood for over the past two years,” the National Republican Congressional Committee declared.
Obama’s proposal includes $78 billion in cuts to military spending, which most Republicans are likely to oppose, as well as additional funding for technology, infrastructure and education. “Whether you call it a stimulus or an investment, more government spending simply isn’t the answer,” said Rep. Kristi Noem, R-S.D., who is a leader in the GOP freshman class.
Obama’s speech and the Republican response set the stage for the coming battle over the federal budget. The fight will be punctuated by a debate over whether to raise the nation’s staggering $14.3 trillion debt ceiling in March. Many Republicans are reluctant to extend without the promise of significant budget cuts.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, was unenthusiastic about Obama’s spending freeze proposal.
“At a time when the Treasury Secretary is begging Congress to raise the debt limit, a freeze is simply inadequate,” Boehner said.
Hours before Obama arrived at the Capitol, the House voted with mostly GOP support to pass a resolution calling for the final seven months of this year’s domestic spending to be reduced to 2008 levels.
