via Redhampshire.com: http://www.redhampshire.com/candidates-reactions-to-state-of-the-union/

Following President Obama’s State of the Union Address several campaigns issued reactions to the President’s address.

Frank Guinta (CD-1)

FRANK GUINTA COMMENTS ON
STATE OF THE UNION

Manchester, NH – Frank Guinta released the following statement on President Obama’s State of the Union Address this evening:

“President Obama this evening delivered a speech focused primarily on the economy and jobs. In it, he noted that jobs would be the focus of 2010. Following a year with double digit unemployment rates which continue to climb, my first question to Congress and this Administration – why wasn’t it a focus in 2009? Thousands of New Hampshire citizens, and millions across America, have lost their jobs and to now decide that it is something to pay attention to says to me this is policy based on political expediency, not good government. Last year Congress and President Obama spent a trillion dollars on a failed stimulus with a promise that was never delivered on—it will create jobs. Tonight they have asked the American people to support a second stimulus to accomplish what the first failed to do. We cannot spend ourselves out of this crisis and it concerns me we have not yet learned this lesson.

“But, here is a point that struck me most. As President Obama said with one hand we will spend more money on a second stimulus, increased grant funds, and other expenditures; he said with the other we need a spending freeze. Well, I couldn’t agree more that our spending is out of control and we must rein it in. We should freeze all spending that does not include that which assists in defending our homeland, our personal security and does not break the commitments we have made to our seniors and our most vulnerable. What was omitted from his speech is that it is this Administration and this Congress that pushed us so far so fast down this road.

“Let’s look at the past year. Carol Shea-Porter and her colleagues have voted for the failed trillion dollar stimulus bill, the most fiscally irresponsible budget in history, a trillion dollar government run health care plan and when there wasn’t enough money to spend, recently voted to raise the debt limit by nearly two trillion dollars. This call for a spending freeze is disingenuous at best.

“One cannot ignore the timing of this proposal which comes a week after a Republican was elected in the bluest of blue states. When the peoples voices from NH and around the country weren’t heard loud enough, their votes were heard in Massachusetts and now political expediency has forced Congress to pay attention. I am glad they have. I would like to see this new found interest in spending control followed by actions. We can reduce the deficit and spending by using some common sense and fiscal responsibility. We should call for an audit of all government agencies. I simply refuse to believe that there is not waste in government. Find it and cut it. Stimulate the economy by getting out of the way of small businesses. Reduce their taxes and provide incentives so they may grow and hire.

“As we have seen in the past, deficit reduction will be addressed with proposed tax increases. This is not necessary and not acceptable. The People simply have no more to give.” –Frank Guinta, 1st District Congressional Candidate.

Bill Binnie (US Senate)

Binnie: The President should have admitted taking the country down the wrong path

(Portsmouth, NH January 27) Bill Binnie, Republican candidate for the United States Senate in New Hampshire, says President Barack Obama should have done more in his State of the Union address tonight to acknowledge that he is taking America down the wrong path.

“President Obama should have admitted tonight that his big government economic policies are not working” says Binnie. “He should have announced that he was reversing his wasteful stimulus spending program and that he was taking back the billions of tax dollars still in the stimulus pipeline.”

Binnie also dismissed the President’s job programs as “too little, too late.”

Binnie noted the President missed an opportunity tonight to acknowledge that Americans are rejecting his costly health care proposals.

“President Obama should have told the American people tonight that he was going back to the drawing board and that he was ready to listen to Republican voices when it comes to health care.”

Binnie says it’s time for a new course in Washington.

“We don’t need more political zigzagging,” says Binnie. “What America needs are common sense, fiscally responsible solutions to create real jobs and real economic growth.”

Bob Bestani (CD-1)

“A Campaign Speech Disconnected From The Reality of His Governance

President Obama’s State of the Union address was familiar to most Americans, repackaging precisely the rhetoric he used during his successful campaign for the presidency. It was completely foreign, however, to the reality of how he, Carol Shea-Porter, and the Democratic Congress have governed during the past year. There is no evidence that any of them have listened to the clear call of the American people to bring about the change we want, rather than the change they have tried to force upon us.

In his speech, the President decried an atmosphere “where every day is Election Day.” Yet he reflexively returned to casting blame upon the prior administration for creating a disaster from which he claims to have saved us through his “immediate and aggressive” action. The President should cease his obsessive focus on the last “eight years” and concentrate on the three years ahead of him by working with Republicans in a truly bi-partisan fashion. Honest disagreements cannot be reconciled simply by stating “I won.”

The President promised to make “tough decisions” to reign in the unprecedented budget deficits which are causing our national debt to spiral out of control. Yet his first year in office with a pliant Congress has been marked by a non-stop campaign to swell projected deficits to such heights that our national debt will double in five years, and triple in ten. This has occurred through a $787 billion stimulus bill that unequivocally failed to keep his promise that unemployment would stay below 8%; his relentless advocacy for a health care bill that would cost more than $1 trillion; and turning a blind eye to the thousands of wasteful congressional earmarks which he suddenly decried anew after more than a year of silence.

As he did before his election, the President criticized both the effects of lobbying and horse trading in the formation of public policy. Yet the monstrosity of a health care bill that he pledged tonight to continue attempting to force upon an unwilling American people will forever stand as a monument to these practices: built upon a foundation of special deals cut behind closed doors with every interest group imaginable and plastered with corrupt payoffs to buy support for the legislation, such as the “Louisiana Purchase” and the “Cornhusker Kickback.”

Finally, the President promised to focus, as he rightly should, on restoring economic prosperity and the creation of sustainable jobs. Yet during 2009, when more than 3 million real jobs were actually lost, the President’s signature economic policy, the $787 billion stimulus bill, has yielded little to no evidence of producing a fraction of the mythical 2 million jobs “created or saved,” a figure which not even his closest advisors can agree upon or document.

The American people elect a President not to give great speeches or run well managed campaigns, but to provide effective leadership in solving difficult issues of national importance. The sad truth of the first year of his presidency is that President Obama continues to prove masterful at the former, but has been unwilling to focus on the latter. “