WASHINGTON — More than anything, President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address signaled a fresh battle for the hearts and minds of America’s beleaguered middle class — and Republicans weren’t having any of it.
Obama mentioned the middle class at least seven times and touted “working” people at least nine as he rolled out proposals to offer new child tax credits, raise the minimum wage, extend paid family leave and make college more affordable. He mentioned “families” 16 times.
But well before Obama’s speech was over, House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) office was firing off responses, declaring that Obama’s “regulatory onslaught squeezes the very middle-class families he claims to be trying to help,” and that he was threatening to veto what Republicans consider to be jobs bills.
In the GOP response to the address, freshman Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) suggested that the president has harmed regular people.
“The new Republican Congress also understands how difficult these past six years have been,” said Ernst, who first attracted attention by promising to make Washington insiders squeal like the hogs she used to castrate on a farm. “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.”
Such sentiments were echoed widely by Republicans leaving the address, who pointed to people’s struggles as evidence that the GOP’s agenda will better serve most Americans.
“If you look at middle-class families who have lost income over the past several years, if you look at Colorado families where median income has declined … that is not a stronger place than it was, and not a stronger place than it needs to be,” said Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.).
“You know, I was disappointed. I was disappointed that I didn’t hear more from the president as far as how we were going to help those middle-class families,” said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), the top woman in the GOP leadership. “I thought he painted a little rosy picture of how things are, at a time when people continue to see their wages actually shrink, take-home pay shrinking. Job opportunities are not enough.”
But the tone of the GOP’s response highlighted a difficult fact to deal with in the two years before the next presidential election: Republicans are making an argument that is often negative, leaving Obama and Democrats to strike a more positive tone as unemployment continues to fall and hiring improves.
And it is focused right at the heart of the American electorate.
Asked for three highlights in the president’s speech, Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) said: “Middle class, middle class and middle class.” And asked if Republicans would be legislative partners on most of the issues Obama raised, Israel responded, “No, no and no.”
Sen. Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), who has long argued that the Democrats should keep the middle class at the heart of their efforts, didn’t see much chance in the GOP topping the pitch Obama laid out.
“We’ve been talking about the middle class for a long time,” Schumer said. “They [Republicans] have been talking about budget deficits and cutting the deficit — not now. Even the [Keystone] pipeline, which is hardly a middle-class bill, 35 permanent jobs, [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell is saying it’s a middle-class jobs bill. They’ve appropriated our rhetoric, but that’s about it. They can’t break away from being a special interest party.”
Some Republicans acknowledged that they had a more negative message, but they also suggested Americans would not buy Obama’s prescriptions.
“Those are the kind of background noise that you hear in every State of the Union speech — kind of a litany or grab bag of proposals. It’ll be forgotten by midnight,” said Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.).
Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.) called Obama’s ideas “everything for everybody,” and suggested that people in his state, at least, would not believe the president.
“They understand that there’s nothing in life free,” Boozman said. “When you promise universal this, universal that, somebody’s going to have to pay for that, and the reality is the middle class always winds up paying the bill.”
The basic disagreement over which policies are viable and which ones will do the most to help the nation’s most-coveted voting bloc also telegraph what is likely to be a contentious two years, with the GOP willing to embrace almost none of Obama’s proposals.
Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) predicted the likely level of cooperation between the White House and the GOP-led Congress by invoking a phrase used in Passover celebrations that asks, “Why is this night different from all other nights?”
“With regards to Republicans and their antipathy to the president, tonight was no different from all other nights,” Grayson said, noting how GOP lawmakers would “sit there like stone” every time Obama outlined one of his priorities. “They don’t care … unfortunately his proposals that require congressional approval are dead on arrival.”
live blog Oldest Newest Share + Today 1:37 AM ESTObama State Of The Union Address Highlights Battle For The Middle Class HuffPost’s Michael McAuliff and Sabrina Siddiqui report:
More than anything, President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address signaled a fresh battle for the hearts and minds of America’s beleaguered middle class — and Republicans weren’t having any of it.
Obama mentioned the middle class at least seven times and touted “working” people at least nine as he rolled out proposals to offer new child tax credits, raise the minimum wage, extend paid family leave and make college more affordable. He mentioned “families” 16 times.
But well before Obama’s speech was over, House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) office was firing off responses, declaring that Obama’s “regulatory onslaught squeezes the very middle-class families he claims to be trying to help,” and that he was threatening to veto what Republicans consider to be jobs bills.
Read more here.
HuffPost’s Elise Foley reports:
Earlier Tuesday, it appeared the GOP’s Spanish-language rebuttal to the State of the Union would be exactly the same as the English-language one, just delivered by a Latino congressman instead of a senator who wants to make English the official U.S. language.
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In a sign that the sun has set on Obama’s gun control agenda, the president’s prepared remarks contained no mention of the issue. Two years after the shooting massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, the absence of guns from Obama’s speech marked a departure from previous years, in which the president urged Congress to pass legislation aimed at reducing gun violence in America.
Read the full story here.
"After years in prison, we’re overjoyed that Alan Gross is back where he belongs. Welcome home, Alan." —Obama #SOTU pic.twitter.com/POG6TQQsQr
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 21, 2015
“In Cuba, we are ending a policy that was long past its expiration date. When what you’re doing doesn’t work for fifty years, it’s time to try something new,” Obama said. “Our shift in Cuba policy has the potential to end a legacy of mistrust in our hemisphere; removes a phony excuse for restrictions in Cuba; stands up for democratic values; and extends the hand of friendship to the Cuban people.”
HuffPost’s Joy Resmovits reports:
Parents, teachers and policymakers who listened to Tuesday night’s State of the Union address heard an earful from President Barack Obama about his intentions to retool education’s bookends by making community college free, expanding child care and increasing cybersecurity for students.
Obama mentioned few specifics about K-12 education, one of his administration’s top priorities during his first term. Notably, the president mentioned not one word directly about one of his education secretary’s priorities for 2015: rewriting the much-maligned No Child Left Behind Act, the Bush-era school accountability law. Obama also failed to mention the words teacher and testing.
Read more here.
“Last month, we launched a new spacecraft as part of a re-energized space program that will send American astronauts to Mars,” Obama said. “In two months, to prepare us for those missions, Scott Kelly will begin a year-long stay in space. Good luck, Captain — and make sure to Instagram it.”
Hey, Trade Promotion Authority finally gets the GOP out of their seats!
— Mike O'Brien (@mpoindc) January 21, 2015
HuffPost’s Elise Foley reports:
There’s a major fight brewing in the Capitol over President Barack Obama’s immigration policies, and whether funding for the Department of Homeland Security should be threatened to stop them. But you wouldn’t necessarily know it from the president’s State of the Union address on Tuesday.
Obama only mentioned the word “immigration” twice, and didn’t make the impassioned pleas he has in years past for immigration reform. There was no call for a vote on a comprehensive immigration bill, or even smaller legislative measures like help for young undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children.
Instead, Obama’s message was that Congress should stop fighting him on immigration. Or, more specifically, that they should stop fighting his executive actions to protect some undocumented immigrants from being deported.
“If we’re going to have arguments, let’s have arguments — but let’s make them debates worthy of this body and worthy of this country. … Yes, passions still fly on immigration, but surely we can all see something of ourselves in the striving young student, and agree that no one benefits when a hardworking mom is taken from her child, and that it’s possible to shape a law that upholds our tradition as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants,” Obama said.
Read the full story here.
Some fun on the floor, as Gillibrand makes a "come onnnnn" hand gesture when the Repubs around her didn't stand for pay equity #SOTU2015
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) January 21, 2015
“To everyone in this Congress who still refuses to raise the minimum wage, I say this: If you truly believe you could work full-time and support a family on less than ,000 a year, go try it,” Obama said. “If not, vote to give millions of the hardest-working people in America a raise.”
“Today, we’re the only advanced country on Earth that doesn’t guarantee paid sick leave or paid maternity leave to our workers. Forty-three million workers have no paid sick leave. Forty-three million. Think about that. And that forces too many parents to make the gut-wrenching choice between a paycheck and a sick kid at home,” Obama said. “So I’ll be taking new action to help states adopt paid leave laws of their own. And since paid sick leave won where it was on the ballot last November, let’s put it to a vote right here in Washington. Send me a bill that gives every worker in America the opportunity to earn seven days of paid sick leave. It’s the right thing to do.”
Obama went back to speaking on Rebekah and Ben, saying for a couple like them, “Friday night pizza is a splurge.”
“Because families like Rebekah’s still need our help. She and Ben are working as hard as ever, but have to forego vacations and a new car so they can pay off student loans and save for retirement,” Obama said.
“Basic childcare for [their children] Jack and Henry costs more than their mortgage, and almost as much as a year at the University of Minnesota,” Obama added. “Like millions of hardworking Americans, Rebekah isn’t asking for a handout, but she is asking that we look for more ways to help families get ahead.”
“We can’t slow down businesses or put our economy at risk with government shutdowns or fiscal showdowns,” Obama said. “We can’t put the security of families at risk by taking away their health insurance, or unraveling the new rules on Wall Street, or refighting past battles on immigration when we’ve got a system to fix. And if a bill comes to my desk that tries to do any of these things, it will earn my veto.”
