Bellaire area Congressman John Culberson, R-TX, reacted negatively to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night.
Some of the things Obama focused on in his address were creating jobs, reforming schools, changing the way we use energy and reducing the deficit.
Culberson said the president’s address “defies logic.”
“President Obama once again tried to persuade the American people that government should be the mechanism for job creation and that economic recovery is dependent on more government spending,” Culberson said. “Evidently the president still believes that you can maintain record-high spending levels and pay down the debt at the same time, which defies logic.”
Obama said in his address that the American people want Democrats and Republicans to work together to create more jobs.
“We need to out innovate, out educate, and out build the rest of the world,” he said. “We have to make America the best place on earth to do business. We need to take responsibility for our deficit and reform our government. That’s how our people will prosper. That’s how we’ll win the future.”
Culberson said the government can’t create jobs like the private sector.
“President Obama stated unequivocally that the stimulus would create over 3.5 million jobs and that unemployment would not rise above eight percent,” Culberson said. “Instead we have record high unemployment and millions of Americans still looking for work. The fact of the matter is that government can’t create jobs like the private sector and government doesn’t add value to the economy.”
Obama said that “the stock market has come roaring back” and the economy is up again.
“Now that the worst of the recession if over we have to confront the fact that the government spends more than it takes in,” Obama said during his address. “If we truly care about our deficit we simply can’t afford a permanent extension of the tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans.”
Obama also said he wants to freeze annual domestic spending for the next five years, which represents 12 percent of budget, but doing so won’t be enough.
He said he is willing to cut whatever the country can live without.
“Conservatives recognize that more government spending, programs, and regulations are not the answer. We have already cut our own budgets and repealed a massive entitlement that our nation cannot afford,” Culberson said. “In just three weeks, Conservatives voted to cut $2.6 trillion in new spending and reduce deficits by $700 billion. We understand that the era of big government and big spending is mercifully at an end. My hope is that the President will finally reach the same conclusion.”
Obama urged Democrats and Republicans to work together to take care of what needs to be fixed.
“There are no illusions about the work ahead of us. Reforming our schools, changing the way we use energy, reducing our deficit. None of this will be easy,” Obama said. “We may have differences in policy but we all believe in rights enshrined in our constitution. We believe in the same dream where anything is possible.”
Obama delivered his State of the Union address Tuesday night to a joint session of Congress from the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C.
To watch the address, click here.
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