RNC Talking Points: President Obama’s First State Of The Union –
An Explanation To The NationJanuary 26, 2010
· After a year of electoral defeats, broken promises, and failed policy initiatives, President Obama will spend the majority of his first State of the Union address explaining to the nation exactly what went wrong and why.
· Instead of listening to the concerns of the American people and bringing forward fresh detailed ideas to spark job creation, President Obama will spend the evening shifting the blame for his failed policy initiatives and turning the State of the Union into an Explanation to the Nation.
· As usual, unnamed Wall Street bankers will be the primary scapegoat for President Obama’s first year failures, with the president pushing for a savings tax on banks that he claims will recoup money from TARP, despite the fact that many of the banks that received a bailout have paid back all the money.
· Financial firms that didn’t take TARP money will be hit with Obama’s savings tax, while others like GM, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, all of whom took bailout funds, are exempt from Obama’s savings tax.
· In an attempt to grab the populist mantle, the president will claim that “we want our money back” from Wall Street and the president is right about one thing, Americans do want their money back but not from Wall Street, they want their money back from him.
· Using the economic crisis as a means to their liberal ends, President Obama started with his failed economic stimulus package, moved to his job killing “cap and trade” scheme, continued with his government-run health care experiment, and he even rushed to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, something the majority of Americans firmly oppose.
· Despite President Obama’s recent politically tinged attempts, this administration has not helped middle class American families as promised with nearly every policy initiative including tax hikes on the middle class.
· President Obama and Congressional Democrats have shown how out of touch they are with American families and voters have gone to the polls in New Jersey, Virginia and Massachusetts to make it known that their failed policies and politics-as-usual governing is the wrong direction for our country.
· The upcoming vote to increase America’s debt ceiling to a record breaking $1.9 trillion is just another example, in a year full of examples, that President Obama has failed to live up to his promise of renewed responsibility. At a time when millions of Americans are desperately struggling to live within their means and survive this economic recession, the fact the President Obama would team together with Congressional Democrats to increase America’s credit card limit is the height of political arrogance and the very definition of irresponsibility.
· Instead of changing the political culture of Washington with his pledge for increased government transparency and political bipartisanship, President Obama and Congressional Democrats have fully embraced a method of operating that favors secret closed-door Capitol Hill meetings and complete one party monopoly rule.
· Over the past year, independent voters in Virginia, New Jersey and now Massachusetts have made their voices heard sending a clear message that they’ve had enough of the binge spending and government-growing agenda coming from Washington – Democrats everywhere are officially on notice.
· President Obama and his liberal allies can rest assured that the American public will continue to send them messages until they start listening or they are voted out of office.
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RNC Talking Points: Post State Of The Union – President Obama’s Explanation To The Nation
January 27, 2010
Post State Of The Union Top Line Message Points
· President Obama delivered an “Explanation to the Nation” tonight – instead of a State of the Union.
· President Obama and Washington Democrats owe Americans an explanation for their failed economic policies, high unemployment rate, government-run health care and an out-of control binge spending agenda that they can only pay for by raising taxes on middle-class families.
o President Obama campaigned on lower taxes for middle class families – but his policies will raise taxes on those very families he pledged to protect.
o President Obama promised jobs for Americans with the $787 billion stimulus package that has done nothing to solve the unacceptably high unemployment rate.
o President Obama promised that lobbyists wouldn’t be in control of the White House – but the Obama administration has issued waiver after waiver to allow lobbyists to serve as Obama appointees.
o President Obama pledged transparency on health care but went behind closed doors with Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to deliver a plan that the American people don’t support.
o And, President Obama pledged to bring together Democrats and Republicans, Left and Right, to solve America’s problems. Instead, he has repeatedly rebuffed Congressional Republicans’ proposals on creating jobs and reforming health care.
o President Obama has categorically ignored the common sense conservative solutions that Republicans have offered to keep taxes low and make incremental changes to our health care system.
· Tonight, President Obama tried to cast himself as a fiscal conservative by temporarily freezing spending – yet his credibility on the issue is weak. There have been no policies to curb the binge spending behavior in Washington.
o President Obama is asking for targeted tax cuts – but remains opposed to across-the-board tax cuts that will help spur the economy and create jobs.
· President Obama and Congressional Democrats are disconnected from reality and not listening to the American people -- evidenced by election results in New Jersey, Massachusetts and Virginia.
Excerpts Of Bob McDonnell’s Response
JOBS - “Good government policy should spur economic growth, and strengthen the private sector’s ability to create new jobs. We must enact policies that promote entrepreneurship and innovation, so America can better compete with the world. What government should not do is pile on more taxation, regulation, and litigation that kill jobs and hurt the middle class.”
SPENDING - “The amount of this debt is on pace to double in five years, and triple in ten. The federal debt is already over $100,000 per household. This is simply unsustainable. The President's partial freeze on discretionary spending is a laudable step, but a small one. The circumstances of our time demand that we reconsider and restore the proper, limited role of government at every level.”
HEALTH CARE - “All Americans agree, we need a health care system that is affordable, accessible, and high quality. But most Americans do not want to turn over the best medical care system in the world to the federal government.”
ENERGY - “Advances in technology can unleash more natural gas, nuclear, wind, coal, and alternative energy to lower your utility bills. Here in Virginia, we have the opportunity to be the first state on the East Coast to explore for and produce oil and natural gas offshore.”
EDUCATION - “The President and I agree on expanding the number of high-quality charter schools, and rewarding teachers for excellent performance. More school choices for parents and students mean more accountability and greater achievement. A child's educational opportunity should be determined by her intellect and work ethic, not by her zip code.”
NATIONAL DEFENSE - “We applaud President Obama's decision to deploy 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. We agree that victory there is a national security imperative. But we have serious concerns over recent steps the Administration has taken regarding suspected terrorists.”
THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT - “Here at home government must help foster a society in which all our people can use their God-given talents in liberty to pursue the American Dream. Republicans know that government cannot guarantee individual outcomes, but we strongly believe that it must guarantee equality of opportunity for all. That opportunity exists best in a democracy which promotes free enterprise, economic growth, strong families, and individual achievement.”
OUR SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT - “Top-down one-size-fits-all decision making should not replace the personal choices of free people in a free market, nor undermine the proper role of state and local governments in our system of federalism. As our Founders clearly stated, and we Governors understand, government closest to the people governs best.”
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