President Obama delivered his 2012 State of the Union Address Tuesday night which offered many opportunities for the GOP candidates to critique and respond to the President. Here are excerpts from each candidate’s response to the speech.
Rick Santorum:
“Tonight Barack Obama transformed the President’s annual State of the Union address into the kick-off of his re-election campaign. From beginning to end, the American people heard more of the same – empty promises and grand platitudes that will do nothing to help the millions of Americans who are unemployed or under employed find a good paying job.
Rather than call for decisive action in allowing projects like the Keystone Pipeline or reducing the regulatory burden his Administration has imposed, the President declared war on those who are most successful in our society. Barack Obama should realize he’s the President of all Americans, but sadly, he has instead chosen to govern and campaign as the Divider-in-Chief.”
Continue reading for the remaining candidate responses.
Ron Paul:
“Tonight, President Obama once again showed that he does not represent the fundamental change this country needs. Instead of offering solutions to the problems our country faces, the President was intent on delivering a campaign speech, further dealing in the typical Washington political gamesmanship that has gotten us exactly nowhere close to improving the lives of the American people.
“In a speech where much of the rhetoric was devoted to job creation, it was strange that President Obama would brag about his job-destroying national health care plan, Obamacare, and the Dodd-Frank bill, which, contrary to the President’s claims, guarantees future taxpayer bailouts of large institutions. Unfortunately, President Obama’s ‘job creation’ policies amount to little more than continuing to allow government bureaucrats to pick winners and losers, which is a recipe for continued economic stagnation.”
Mitt Romney:
“Here in Florida, people used to wake up and look forward to a hard day’s work and a good, honest wage. The money they earned helped support families and build communities. Today too many factory floors are silent, warehouses are deserted, corporate offices are empty, and real estate endeavors are abandoned. Floridians are struggling to find a job, keep a home, and raise a family.
As I’ve traveled across America, I’ve heard similar stories in virtually every corner of this country. High unemployment and record home foreclosures. Debt that’s too high and opportunities that are too few. This is the real state of our union. But you won’t hear stories like these in President Obama’s address tonight. The unemployed don’t get invitations to sit with the First Lady.
Instead, tonight, the President will do what he does best. He will give a nice speech with a lot of memorable phrases. But he won’t give you the hard numbers.
Like 9.9 – that’s the unemployment rate in this state.
Or 25 percent – that’s the percentage of foreclosed homes in America that are right here in Florida.
Or $15 trillion – that’s the size of our national debt.”
Newt Gingrich:
“We have a crisis of work in this country and tonight President Obama proposed nothing in the way of policy changes that will get us to robust job creation and dramatic economic growth.
Instead, the president described his conviction that his big government is built to last and should be paid for with higher taxes.
But bigger government and higher taxes will not lead to jobs and growth. Bigger government and higher taxes will instead lead to more people on food stamps, a situation which the President and his party defend as a fair outcome.
Here we have to confront the truth about President Obama. Economic growth and prosperity is not really at the top of his agenda. He will always prefer a food stamp economy to a paycheck economy and call it fair.”
