The Republican Party toned down partisan rhetoric in its official response to the President Obama’s State of the Union speech Tuesday night, focusing on the party’s plans and ideals instead of directly responding to the administration’s agenda.
Newly elected Sen. Joni Ernst, a no-nonsense conservative from Iowa who delivered the rebuttal, portrayed a compassionate GOP that understands — and will address — the concerns, anxieties and pains of average Americans.
“Rather than respond to a speech, I’d like to talk about your priorities,” Ernst said. “I’d like to have a conversation about the new Republican Congress you just elected, and how we plan to make Washington focus on your concerns again.
“We heard the message you sent in November — loud and clear. And now we’re getting to work to change the direction Washington has been taking our country.”
Ernst touched on potential areas of bipartisanship, saying there’s a lot Congress can achieve “if we work together,” such as easing trade restrictions to Europe and the Pacific, reforming an outdated and “loophole-ridden” tax code, and encouraging Americans to buy U.S. made products “so we can boost manufacturing, wages, and jobs right here at home.
“The president has already expressed some support for these kinds of ideas,” she said. “We’re calling on him now to cooperate to pass them.”
Still, Ernst did take some jabs at the president and the “hurt” caused by his agenda, particularly his healthcare reforms.
“Americans have been hurting, but when we demanded solutions, too often Washington responded with the same stale mindset that led to failed policies like Obamacare,” she said. “It’s a mindset that gave us political talking points, not serious solutions.”
The senator vowed that Republicans will “keep fighting to repeal and replace a healthcare law that’s hurt so many hardworking families.”
Ernst said the Republican-controlled Congress understand “how difficult these past six years have been” under the Obama administration.
“For many of us, the sting of the economy and the frustration with Washington’s dysfunction weren’t things we had to read about. We felt them every day,” she said.
She pressed the president to approve the long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline.
And the senator vowed that congressional Republicans will propose ideas that aim to cut wasteful spending and balance the budget — “with meaningful reforms, not higher taxes like the president has proposed.”
Other Republicans were even more critical of Obama in their personal State of the Union responses. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, while saying he appreciated the president has “finally acknowledge[d] that the middle class is being squeezed,” accused him of doubling down on failed polices that “have prevented so many Utahns and hardworking Americans from getting ahead in the first place.
“We know these are not serious proposals because the president is not serious about getting them through Congress,” said the Tea Party favorite. “For him, it’s all 2016 partisan politics now, and Republicans shouldn’t waste time debating the merits of the president’s political talking points.
“As the president tries to divide Americans and distract them from the failures of his administration, we shouldn’t take the bait.”
Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., in a pre-State of the Union video response, said it appeared that president is willing to work with Republicans on certain key issues, such as trade and improving the nation’s infrastructure.
“And I think there’s genuine bipartisan consensus [on the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria] and some of the problems we’re seeing in the Middle East,” he said.
But Cole chastised the president for pushing “nonstarter” items like a tax increase aimed at “redistributing wealth from one group of people to another group of people.
“If the idea that the next two years is simply going to be about raising taxes so that we can spend more money in Washington, D.C., at the expense of our constituents, that’s simply not going to fly,” he said.
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., accused the president of waging a “war on fossil fuels and nuclear energy.
“The president’s agenda will cost our economy $479 billion dollars, we will experience a double-digit electricity price increase, and tens of thousands of Americans will lose access to well-paying jobs over the course of the next decade,” he said. ”Why the pain for no gain?”
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., delivered a State of the Union response via YouTube, saying the president’s proposal to raise taxes on the most wealthy Americans wouldn’t solve the nation’s poverty problem, saying that everyone’s taxes — “from the richest to the poorest” — should be cut, along with government spending.
“Pitting one American against another is not a pathway toward prosperity,” he said. “The president is intent on redistributing the pie but not growing it. He misunderstands that the bulk of America wants a bigger pie.”
Paul, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, said both parties “too often seek military intervention without thinking through the possible unintended consequences.”
He also took a direct swipe at his possible Democratic presidential opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, saying that “Hillary’s war in Libya is a prime example of acting without thinking.”
“Libya is now a jihadist wonderland,” he said. “Jihadists swim in our embassy pool. Our ambassador is dead, and we are now more at risk of terrorist attacks that ever before,” he said.
