REPUBLICAN RESPONSE TO STATE OF UNION OFFERS SHARP CONTRAST TO PRESIDENT’S VISION

By Miriam Raftery

January 21, 2015 (Washington D.C.) – The official Republican Party response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech was delivered by Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa, a mother and  Lieutenant Colonel in the Army National Guard.

Ernst stated that “rather than respond to a speech, I’d like to talk about your priorities.” She said the newly elected Republican majority in Congress “understands how difficult these past six years have been” citing economic concerns and “frustration with Washington’s dysfunction.”

She then laid out priorities of the Republican party, casting clear differences for voters between the President’s goals and those of the GOP Congress.

The President called for higher taxes on the wealthiest Americans to assure funding for programs to help middle class Americans and protect programs such as Social Security, following years of tax-slashing by Congress  under prior administrations that helped create a massive deficit which his administration has cut by two-thirds.  He proposed programs to help the middle class such as universal childcare and free community college.

Ernst said Republicans aim to “lower rates” of taxes further still and “create jobs, not pay for more government spending.”   As an example of job creation she pushed for the Keystone pipeline to be approved by the Senate and the President, after the House passed a measure approving the project. 

Although a top NASA scientist has said the Keystone Project would be devastating for its impact on climate change by fostering release of greenhouse gases from tar sands mining in Canada, Ernst insisted that the pipeline would have “minimal environmental impact.”

She also called for more help for large companies by tearing down trade barriers in Europe and the Pacific. “Let’s sell more of what we make and grow in America over there,” she said, also calling for an increase in manufacturing to create jobs in the U.S.

Obama has proposed raising the minimum wage and providing sick pay for workers, policies Ernst did not comment on but that the Republican Party leadership has opposed.

She called on both parties to work together to discuss ways to support the military and confront terrorist threats posed by ISIL, Al Qaeda, and radicalized individuals.

The Affordable Healthcare Act has provided healthcare benefits to 40 million Americans who lacked healthcare before. But Ernst noted that for some Americans who had healthcare before, plans have been canceled or premiums raised.  She vowed that Republicans, rather than work to improve flaws in the measure, will “keep fighting to repeal” the law, without providing details about a replacement strategy.  Whether the GOP plan would mean eliminating new-found healthcare for millions of Americans or going back to the days when insurers could cancel or deny coverage for even minor pre-existing conditions was not addressed by Ernst.

She did make clear that the Republican plan to balance the budget will focus on cutting “wasteful spending” (without citing examples) and “meaningful reforms, not higher taxes…”

Raised as a Midwest farm girl who has boasted on the campaign trail of castrating hogs -- work she says has prepared her for cutting pork in politics--Ernst concluded that Americans “just need the freedom to dream big, and a whole lot of hard work” to succeed.