House Republicans’ point man on the budget criticized President Obama Friday for his State of the Union rhetoric on the middle class, saying Obama’s agenda endangers prosperity.
“President Obama calls higher taxes, more bureaucracy and Washington spending ‘middle-class economics.’ Yet it’s those economic policies that have created a recovery that’s been particularly lousy for America’s middle class,” wrote Rep. Tom Price, R-Georgia, in an op-ed published by RealClearPolitics Friday.
Price, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, is in charge of directing the GOP’s fiscal policy plans. He faulted Obama for taxes and regulations that he said slow economic growth and job creation, as well as for Obamacare.
The 60-year-old medical doctor also criticized Obama for not not addressing the high level of national debt, writing that “[i]f what the president is proactively doing were not harmful enough, what he’s refusing to do is far worse” when it comes to lowering the debt. The president did not mention the federal debt in his speech Tuesday night, instead focusing on the recent improvement in annual deficits.
Price said that Republicans will present an “opportunity agenda” that focuses on getting the debt under control and spending federal dollars more efficiently to allow the private sector to create growth.
Price has said that as chairman he will seek to oppose Obama’s spending plans, including by trying to use showdowns such as the upcoming vote to raise the debt ceiling as “pinch points” giving Congress leverage to sway policy.
Another goal he laid out as he took the chairman’s gavel from Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin was to promote federalism by shifting fiscal policies from the federal level to the states.
