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Rep. Kelly Responds to State of the Union Address

January 28, 2014

WASHINGTON — Representative Mike Kelly (R-PA) – a member of the House Way and Means Committee – issued the following statement this evening in response to President Obama’s 2014 State of the Union address.

“For the fourth year in a row, I listened live as President Obama spoke boldly and ambitiously, and for the fourth year in a row, I heard him fail to acknowledge the true solutions that our country desperately needs or accurately describe the true challenges that so many Americans are facing. While the president once again depicted a far-reaching agenda sure to please his political base, his speech once again provided the wrong answers to the wrong questions.

“Tomorrow the president will have the privilege of visiting our backyard in Western Pennsylvania and meeting the people I’ve had the honor of knowing my entire life. Like all Americans, especially those on hard times, they crave leadership that paves the way for poverty-crushing opportunities and family-sustainable jobs to finally be created. This requires policies that empower individuals, not government; that accommodate not minimal expectations but every American’s maximum God-given potential. As Ronald Reagan once put it, ‘America is too great for small dreams.’

“Disappointingly but not surprisingly, throughout tonight’s speech, we did not hear about the millions of Americans who’ve seen their health plans shattered by Obamacare, including at least 250,000 Pennsylvanians; we did not hear about the 92 million Americans out of the workforce, the most dire level since 1978; we did not hear about the $17 trillion of national debt that is threatening our children and grandchildren’s future every single day. These figures describe the real state of our union, and they are what the president would hear about if he actually listens to the people of Western Pennsylvania during his trip tomorrow.

“As expected, tonight we did hear about the president’s willingness to use what he’s called his ‘phone and pen’ to push his unaffordable agenda, apparently regardless of popular will or congressional involvement. What most of us view as a system of checks and balances to cherish, the president seemingly sees as an inconvenience to ignore. This sort of attitude is inconsistent with our representative government’s founding purpose, and I will join my colleagues to oppose it whenever and however we must.

“Instead of threatening to circumvent Congress when the democratic process doesn’t go his way, President Obama should use his ‘phone’ to call Harry Reid in the Senate and insist that he approve the dozens of House-passed jobs bills stuck on his desk, and then use his ‘pen’ to finally sign those bills into law.

“If the president truly wants to make a 2014 a ‘year of action’ as he claimed tonight, then he should work with Congress and listen to the American people – not around Congress or for narrow political interests – to help unleash America’s full economic potential and put our citizens back to work with good jobs and bright hope for the future.”

 

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