WASHINGTON -- Several members of Arkansas' congressional delegation said Tuesday that President Barack Obama promised a vision for the country in his State of the Union speech that they had heard before.
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Obama's speech largely focused on the middle class while touching on infrastructure, civil rights, immigration, cybersecurity and foreign policy.
"We have risen from recession freer to write our own future than any other nation on Earth. It's now up to us to choose who we want to be over the next 15 years and for decades to come," Obama said. "Will we accept an economy where only a few of us do spectacularly well? Or will we commit ourselves to an economy that generates rising incomes and chances for everyone who makes the effort?"
The president has spent the past few weeks announcing many of the proposals included in the speech at events around the country, and there was little unexpected policy news in his address.
Obama asked Congress to require employers to let workers accrue up to seven paid sick days a year; discussed his plan to make the first two years of community college free; asked for $68 billion in new domestic and defense spending; and proposed raising taxes on capital gains and dividend income, and on bank borrowing, to pay for tax cuts for low- and middle-income people.
U.S. Sen. John Boozman, a Republican from Rogers, said rather than new programs and new taxes, "I think the people of Arkansas are more concerned about government that works, making sure that the programs that we have are doing a good job and providing as they should."
Boozman said former President Bill Clinton managed to work well with a Republican Congress in his final six years in office, overhauling the welfare system and balancing the budget, and he hopes Obama will do the same in his last two years.
"We need to find common agreement, and I think there are a number of things that we can do," he said.
U.S. Rep. Steve Womack, a Republican from Rogers, said he expected more of a conciliatory tone from the president after Democrats' losses in November.
"For a president that talked a lot about unity [Tuesday night], I didn't hear a lot of unifying language," he said. "I heard a lot of discussion about more government programs, a bigger government, more taxes, more spending, bigger Washington, a lot of the themes that I've seen and heard in all of the State of the Union addresses that I've attended since this guy's been president."
U.S. Rep. French Hill, a Republican from Little Rock, said he was worried that the president talked about working together but also threatened to move forward without Congress.
"I took a mixed message away from the talk," he said. "He talks about getting our economy moving and coming up with bipartisan ways to do that, and yet he talks about raising taxes and maintaining a heavy regulatory state, things that I think have reduced job growth."
U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman, a Republican from Hot Springs, said the president's message seemed to be that government knows best "from social issues to how we raise our kids to going to college, that government has the solution, that government has the answers, and I don't think that's the message that the American people conveyed in the election Nov. 4. I think America wants the freedoms to fail or succeed on their own, and I don't think they are looking for more government."
U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican from Dardanelle, said in a statement that the president didn't seem to learn from the November election.
"The policies and ideas he put forth are from the same tax-and-spend playbook he's been using for the last six years. Unfortunately, his strategy has made the lives of hardworking Americans more difficult with fewer jobs and lower wages," he said. "But my colleagues and I understand what the President doesn't. Rest assured, we are ready to change course."
In a statement, U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, a Republican from Jonesboro, said the president's speech ignored the national debt.
"It didn't address our debt of $18 trillion as well as our looming interest rate crisis. The American people deserve to hear from the President about the ramifications of neglecting our debt crisis and how, if left unaddressed, will cause interest rate payments to soar and become the single greatest line item in our federal budget," he said.
Each member of Congress is allowed to take one guest to the State of the Union address.
Boozman did not invite a guest this year. Cotton's guest was his wife, Anna.
Hill took Catholic High School's student body president, Brennan Anderson, as his guest. The two ran into Obama outside the House chamber afterward and Anderson shook the president's hand.
Crawford's guest was Brittany Edwards, a part-time employee from the 1st Congressional District, who is in law school full time in the area. Westerman's guest was Dr. John Pace of Hot Springs, a neurosurgeon and longtime friend of the congressman. Womack took Springdale Public Schools Superintendent Jim Rollins.
A section on 01/21/2015