State's D.C. six criticize address

WASHINGTON --Members of the all-Republican Arkansas congressional delegation didn't like what they heard from President Barack Obama on Tuesday night.

"It was much of the same that I've seen in the years that I've attended this president's State of the Union addresses. Condescending at times. A jaded view of what a better America actually looks like. A lot of empty promises and no real solutions as to how we're going to make America stronger again," said 3rd District U.S. Rep. Steve Womack.

Voters are concerned about national security, the economy and the rapidly expanding national debt, Womack said.

"Americans do not feel like they're better off now than they were when this president took over seven years. ... Not once in his speech tonight did he talk about a nearly $19 trillion debt," the lawmaker from Rogers said. "I have grave concerns about the world that this president lives in. ... His priorities are not the priorities of the people that I represent."

Other delegation members also panned the speech.

After watching the Democratic president for seven years, 4th District U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman of Hot Springs said it's hard to square what Obama says with what Obama does.

"To me it was a lot of empty words, just a lot of rhetoric that sounded good, but if you look at his actions and the things he's done leading up to this, I don't put a lot of stock in what he's saying," he said. "I think he even mentioned separation of powers. I thought that was somewhat ironic with all the executive orders [he's issued]. ... It just doesn't add up."

Second District U.S. Rep. French Hill of Little Rock liked some of Obama's statements about good citizenship but was less pleased with the policy parts of the speech.

"My thoughts were that he proposed in a lot of the speech the same kind of central planning, one-size-fits-all, big-government solutions that have failed to engender the support of a majority of the Congress and a good deal of the country, but I was encouraged by the tone at the end of the speech about calling for each citizen to do their part toward civic virtue and helping those less fortunate and participating in democracy, and I thought he ended the speech on that high note."

U.S. Sen. John Boozman of Rogers said Obama's vantage wouldn't resonate with voters back home.

"I think the speech exemplified what the president's view of the state of the union is. I don't know that his view of the state of the union's the same as the people's of Arkansas," he said. "He talked a lot about a lot of good things that have occurred, and yet the people of Arkansas are still very concerned about job security, they're very concerned about the war on terror, and the president was very short on answers as far as what we need to do specifically in leading that fight. So again I was very disappointed in that sense."

U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton of Dardanelle issued a written statement rejecting Obama's message.

"President Obama's final State of the Union address was a simply a highlight reel of the bad policies and executive overreach of the last seven years. Underneath the rhetoric and feel-good anecdotes the facts tell the real story: the United States is in a worse place today than it was seven years ago," he said.

Earlier in the evening, Cotton predicted Obama's speech would paint a rosier picture than is realistic.

"It seems like the president wants to take a victory lap when we don't have a lot of victories to celebrate," he said.

First District U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford of Jonesboro also gave Obama low marks.

"You can't use the same old veto threats and executive actions to try to create your own future for America that largely ignores our present circumstances, including our rising national debt and threats to our security from abroad," he said in a written statement.

A Section on 01/13/2016