Politics & Government

Obama's #SOTU: 'Strong and Effective' or 'Stomach Turning'?

Here's a look at what Granite Staters had to say about the president's speech.

President Barack Obama delivered his annual State of the Union address on Tuesday night. His speech focused on numerous topics, including the economy, health care and education, among others. Here's a quick recap of what New Hampshire observers had to say about Obama's speech:

U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH): Both parties must work together on our most important priorities: helping create jobs, growing our economy, and strengthening small businesses in New Hampshire and across the country. There are a number of bipartisan proposals that Congress should act on immediately to accomplish these goals, including my bipartisan energy efficiency legislation which will help stimulate the economy, save taxpayers money, and protect our environment from pollution. Higher education is also smart investment in our economic future; we have to make college more affordable for students so that they can acquire the necessary skills to meet future economic demand. In recent weeks we’ve seen signs of bipartisan progress on important issues facing our country and I hope we will build on that cooperation to address the many additional challenges we face as a nation. I will continue to work across the aisle with anyone who is willing to work in good faith to move our economy, and our country, forward.

U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH): The American people sent us to Washington to fully debate the issues and solve tough problems. President Obama identified several areas where Republicans and Democrats must work together, and one of them is strengthening our nation’s infrastructure. I hope he’ll take a serious look at bipartisan legislation I recently helped introduce that would create a fund to finance infrastructure projects without using taxpayer dollars. I also hope the president is serious about reforming our corporate tax code – the highest in the world – to simplify and lower rates, which would make America more competitive, help grow jobs and keep investment here. It was a glaring omission that the President’s speech didn’t address the serious problems with Obamacare. New Hampshire citizens have told me they’re losing their doctors, seeing their coverage cancelled or having to pay more for it. We need to tackle these problems head on.

U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH): The President is clearly focused on the middle class and their struggles. While the economy has improved and this country is moving forward, we are still leaving far too many people behind. I hope Congress and the White House will stay focused on finding solutions to the problems facing the middle class and work together to jumpstart the American Dream.

U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster (D-NH): In tonight’s speech, President Obama outlined what remains the most critical challenge facing our nation today: creating jobs and opportunity for middle class families. Now six years after the national recession, many families remain left behind, unable to retain steady, well-paying jobs. To that end, it is essential that Republicans and Democrats continue to work together to create jobs, grow the economy, and help our families move forward. In December, members of both parties came together to pass a bipartisan budget agreement that did away with some of the reckless, across-the-board cuts that threatened our businesses and weakened the economy. Now, as the President agreed, it is essential that we build on this momentum and continue to work together to address the critical issues facing our nation. I applaud the President’s support for increasing the federal minimum wage. This will help many of our hardest-working friends and neighbors earn a living and support their families. Looking forward, we must continue to focus in the coming months on expanding opportunities for middle class families and supporting small businesses, the backbone of our economy. We must continue to invest in developing a 21st Century workforce. We must continue our work to reduce the deficit in a balanced, responsible way, and we must preserve Social Security and Medicare to help our seniors retire with dignity. We have made some progress, but to truly address the challenges in front of us, we must put politics aside and continue our work together. I look forward to working with the President and with members of both parties in the months ahead to find bipartisan, common sense solutions to the challenges we face and to move our country forward.

Republican Senate candidate Jim Rubens: Beautiful closing words, but the President celebrates a one-half trillion dollar annual deficit, with the resulting debt piled callously onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. He glosses over the reality that incomes for the typical American household have dropped by five percent since he and Jeanne Shaheen took office and that we face a thirty-year record of American adults without jobs. He insults liberty-minded conservatives for engaging in what he calls a "stale" fight because we want government confined to its constitutional bounds. I heartily agree with the President's call for unflagging support for our wounded warriors. I also agree with his call for increased support for basic research, but paid for with budget savings elsewhere and without his corporate cronyism.

Republican Congressional candidate Marilinda Garcia of Salem: I listened carefully to the President tonight hoping to hear a change in course. Unfortunately, President Obama simply doubled-down on policies that have not worked. The majority of Americans believe our country is being led down the wrong track. Millions have scrambled to find new insurance plans and new doctors because of ObamaCare. Millions of Americans are still unemployed and millions more simply believe the system is rigged against them. Instead of addressing these concerns in a real way, President Obama continued to push top-down, government-centered solutions that create plenty of jobs in Washington, DC but not nearly enough in New Hampshire.

New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley: The President laid out the clear differences between the Democratic vision of progress and expanded opportunity, and the same old Republican plan to take us back to the disastrous policies of the past and continue a dangerous social agenda instead of putting Americans back to work. Five years after the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, our economy is rebounding, more than eight million new jobs have been created in the past 46 months, and we are primed to create even more in the future. Democrats know we have much more work to do, and are hard at work to get the job done. Republicans ideological obsession with refighting the health care battles of past regardless of the cost, is a constant reminder of their pathetic failure to rebrand their out of touch party after the 2012 elections, and instead double down on the same chilling rhetoric and radical Tea Party policies that continue to alienate voters.

New Hampshire Republican State Committee Chairman Jennifer Horn: Tonight, President Obama doubled-down on the failed policies that have given us more debt, more job-killing regulations and forced people to lose their health insurance. Instead of offering a new plan to address the challenges facing our country, the president focused on his plan to disregard the Constitution by ignoring Congress and expanding his power. His agenda flies in the face of the vision laid out by our Founding Fathers who established a system of checks and balances to ensure a limited federal government. Jeanne Shaheen, Annie Kuster and Carol Shea-Porter have all blindly supported President Obama's destructive policies and enthusiastically championed his disastrous health care law. They are political puppets and rubber stamps in Congress for a president who lacks the vision and priorities needed to create economic opportunity for New Hampshire families. Tonight's speech reminded voters that President Obama is a failure. In order to get our country back on track we need to replace his loyal foot soldiers like Senator Shaheen. Representative Kuster and Shea Porter with fiscally responsible Republicans who will stand up to the liberal Obama agenda and promote pro growth policies.

Americans for Prosperity–New Hampshire State Director Greg Moore: Tonight, President Obama had a chance to unite a seriously divided nation by bringing people together to working on solving big issues like tax reform, deficit spending and fixing entitlements. Sadly, he instead chose more divisive rhetoric that will lead to the same type of empty promises we saw in last year’s speech. Moreover, we didn’t hear solutions to fix the broken ObamaCare system that is separating people from their doctors and health plans while it drives up costs. We need to hear more solutions that will create jobs and get our economy moving forward, not more finger-pointing and excuses for why big government spending has failed. This was a squandered opportunity to rise above for the President, and we were hoping for more.

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Exeter Democrat David Mirsky: President Barack Obama is a tough guy, he's won't back down from any challenges, and that's exactly what we need from our President. Also noteworthy, as the President said, "China is no longer the number one place in the world to invest, America is."

Portsmouth City Councilor and former Democratic State Rep. Jim Splaine: President Barack Obama reminded us how courageous and determined he is to help the American people beyond politics, even if the Republican and Tea Party Congress tries to be in the way. I was especially impressed with his effort to help "the rest of us" who aren't part of the corporate culture or the top ten percent by his call to increase the minimum wage and include more of us in the economic recovery.  It was stunning that when he called on business owners to raise minimum wages for their employees on their own, House Speaker John Boehner and most Republicans sat in silence. Disgusting. That tells us whose side they're on. 

Republican activist Chris Tremblay: I am struck by how the president tried to reinvent himself as a deregulator tonight. He said he'd cut red tape to speed up economic growth – the problem is he spent the last five years regulating everything from lending, energy and heath care. He simply is not credible.

Exeter Republican Brian Griset: I lasted for 40 minutes. Obama talked about bi-partisanship, then came the "buts." I could not take it any longer. I couldn't take the "buts." I want to work with Congress "but" if you disagree with me I'm just going to do what I want anyway. By executive order and constitutional limits be damned. In fact, every single point tonight is a rehash of the 4 years of "government is the solution," and he stated again and again he will use "his" power to force anyone, anywhere, on any issue to comply with his agenda. As he said on Climate Change. No discussion is allowed! Now he intends to implement the mandatory Obamacare philosophy to energy, businesses, education and tax policy. He believes he's a king. Heaven help us!

Jane Aitken, founder of the New Hampshire Tea Party Coalition: As predicted the State of the Union Address with our mystery man Barack Hussein Obama was yet another stomach-turning comedy of lies and propaganda. Obama wasted no time taking credit for successes that never happened, and for things that the federal government should not be involved with in the first place. Early on he slipped in the idea that he would use executive orders to get things done, thus further reinforcing  the thoughts of many who say that he aspires to be a dictator. He mentioned some upcoming workforce programs... Does anyone remember the Workforce Investment Act, a scandal-ridden program that NH cannot seem to get rid of that is a vestige of the Robert Reich era? The final straw for me was his mention of equal pay for women which got loud applause. Does this man even have a clue what goes on in his own White House where women are paid much less than men? This man is not grounded in reality. I think they call his type 'sociopathic'. And yet, people still swallow his rhetoric. Very frightening indeed.

Former State Rep. Spec Bowers (R-Sunapee): It's not yet over but I've had enough. Unbelievable chutzpah. The facts are that millions of people have given up trying to find a job – more people are not employed than ever before in history; median family income has gone down for four straight years; income inequality has grown worse – more so than under any recent President. He says there are too many regulations and that he will cut them, but he was the one who created most of them and the worst of them. Not a single new idea. Every one of his proposals has been tried and failed multiple times before. Best comment on the web: "Didn't I hear this SOTU address before?"

Former Republican State RepChris Christensen of Merrimack: It was interesting that he pointed to some things that Michelle accomplished, and some things that were occurring on the state level, but not much that was accomplished because he led the charge. No way to calibrate, but I felt that even the standing ovations were tepid compared to previous SOTUA. A new personal retirement account? Isn't that what Congress turned down for George Bush? As a President who can't get Congress to do anything since 2010, why would he plan anything that requires Congressional approval? Isn't that why he bragged about doing (illegal?) things by executive order? Did anybody notice that in 2002 (?) New Hampshire, with a Democrat Governor (Shaheen) and a Republican legislature passed healthcare reform that included covering kids to age 26, transportability, and  no per-existing condition denials or delays (10 pages). Why was the affordable Care Act such a deal (2700 pages.)? This guy is so unbelievable that whatever he said in the SOTUA really didn't matter. I watched the Planning Board meeting on the flip flop. These folks have some integrity. And now 5 years later, he has a new goal to close Gitmo? What a jerk! Why bring up or brag about failures? I turned it off at that point. If he is totally unbelievable on the affordable care act, why would any foreign country find him credible in any international agreements or sanctions?

Former Democratic State Rep.-Elect Stacie Laughton of Nashua: The president seems to be more determined then ever to finish the work he has started. I do feel more hope full then ever that this is the year we can finally get some real change and get real results. Each of the things he spoke on I can believe in. However I still believe that the current laws on guns in America are fine and must be strengthened and not changed. I also think he got it right on equal pay for women and on raising the minimum wage.

Larry Drake, chairman of the Portsmouth Democratic Committee: I applaud President Obama's decision to raise the minimum wage for employees of Federal government contractors. Now Republicans in Congress need to drop their obstructionist tactics and get on board with raising it for all American workers.

Nashua Democratic City Committee member David Victory: Great address. It was strong and effective. He did an excellent job pointing out the Republican shutdown of our government and clearly has finally had enough of blatant GOP obstruction – he'll go around them if necessary. Again called for closing loopholes for outsourcing jobs, although cooperation from GOP unlikely. It was a clear message to the opposition that the American people are interested in what Washington is FOR, not just what they're against.

Former State Rep. Maureen Mooney (R-Merrimack): President Obama actually referenced stepping out of the democratic process to "help families." This reference translates into using more executive orders instead of legislation. The theme of his speech is the same as his presidency, more and bigger government.

Republican Ed Brooks of Salem: 
This President is still using much smoke and mirrors as usual. He continues to act with dictatorial powers and is dishonest about what is happening in and to this country. His big government liberal agenda is still on track to change America in the next 3 Years to a weakened state. 

Exeter Republican and small business owner Julie DiCarlo: 
One comment. A man who has never owned a business has no right to tell Americans how to run theirs. I also wish that he would stop lying about the unemployment numbers in this country. 

Hampton Democrat Gary Patton: It is both encouraging and sad that President Obama must act alone to produce needed changes. It is encouraging because the President will do beneficial things such as increasing the minimum wage for workers under federal contract. It is sad that the President cannot do more, such as increasing the minimum wage for all workers, because of the persistent and all encompassing opposition of Republicans who view defeat of the President as more important than the well being of the nation.

Former State Rep. Fran Wendelboe (R-New Hampton): Highlight of the speech was his recognition of our Veterans. He hit every area I expected… from class warfare to climate change to outlining a country that needs government to "provide the most basic functions." He then attributed the failure to provide what he believes are these basic functions has run amok because Republicans stand in the way by arguing over the scope of government. He just doesn’t get it that our country was founded on the principle of a limited government, not one that every day encroaches more and more in our personal lives. The main positive I heard was his shout out for the importance of the natural gas industry to our economy and energy independence... and then had the audacity to suggest that it was his administration and government who were behind it. The scariest news of the day was the President’s declaration that he would act in any way he could by executive order when he can’t get Congress... the people’s elected representatives... to act. What of separation of powers? If the American public doesn’t wake up and realize that the only way to stop such dictator attitude and rhetoric is to hand his administration  both a House and Senate in 2014 that can clip his wings in the waning time of his Presidency. Perhaps this growth of government and encroachment against liberty will truly awaken the sleeping giant.

Former Portsmouth resident Amelia Chasse: 
President Obama articulated a particularly tired, government-heavy vision in his State of the Union address. Rather than addressing the failure of Obamacare this far and what his administration is doing to fix it, he glossed over an issue impacting tens of millions of Americans and didn't provide answers regarding his signature achievement he has touted for years. The best he could do was asking private businesses to compensate for his bad policy decisions. The Republican response from rising star Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, on the other hand, articulated a clear vision that empowers middle class Americans and is already resonating among the 2014 electorate based on early data. President Obama did nothing tonight to change his party's trajectory heading into November. 

State Rep. Peter Hansen (R-Amherst): 
Well after all the platitudes concerning many of the subjects it was somewhat positive. I wish I could believe that "0" people with pre-existing conditions will never be without insurance and I WOULD have believed that before I heard we could keep our Drs. and our health plans. I noted that he is banking heavily on the female vote to again be a major bloc in the coming elections. I am disappointed by the facts that while he promised affordable college education for all he didn't address the out of control cost of colleges. One of the most out of control cost items in our economy. I am also disappointed that he didn't address fixes for the ever poorer education provided by public education and most importantly what he would do to get about 50% of our population off welfare. Even with a higher minimum wage if the worker isn't working because welfare provides as good or better life style and requiring no effort on the part of the recipient they will continue to stay home and a higher minimum wage accomplishes little. We are out of Iraq and Afghanistan which was nothing of his doing and is positive but when will we ever learn that we will never bring peace to any nation of warring illiterates. His comments regarding not allowing us into a similar conflict were welcomed. He avoided all but the required comments concerning ACA hoping to duck that issue as if it were going to disappear-NOT! It was encouraging indeed to hear his plans for tax reform and eliminating corporate welfare. Overall C+ nothing like previous efforts as his past promises have failed.

Former Democratic state representative, gubernatorial and Congressional candidate and radio host Arnie Arnesen of Concord: He never mentioned inequality or the NSA ... Yeah he used the terms shared prosperity and talked about getting off a permanent war footing but the largest gap between rich and poor since the 1920s and the internal threat presented by an NSA out of control is significant  and should have been addressed.

Windham Democratic Town Committee Chair Kristi St. Laurent: 
One of my favorite quotes: “First class jobs gravitate to first class infrastructure.” NH needs to keep that in mind if we want to stay competitive in the new jobs market. Having dealt with my husband’s unemployment of well over a year, beginning in 2008, and being fortunate enough for him to have had full-time employment since the spring of 2010 – Rob and I appreciated the story of Misty DeMars, and her words, “I am not dependent on the government. Our country depends on people like us. I am confident that in time I will find a job…I will pay my taxes, and we will raise our children in their own home in the community we love. Please give us this chance.” In terms of economics, I appreciated his comment that we need to “do more to make sure our economy honors the dignity of work, and hard work pays off for every single American,” and later, “Americans overwhelmingly agree that no one who works full time should ever have to raise a family in poverty.” And, since I have supported NH Rebellion, and support the Citizens Petition in Windham and other NH towns to call for the repeal of Citizens’ United, I appreciated the comment that, “It should be the power of our vote, not the size of our bank account, that drives our democracy.” Overall, the message was positive – and it seemed that the audience in the chamber was more receptive to acknowledging common points rather than to respond in a strictly partisan manner. I am hopeful that President Obama, the Congress and the nation can realize the year of action that he espoused. “Let’s make progress together.”

Nashua Democratic City Committee member Sonia Prince: I’m happy to hear that we have a president who doesn’t promote war or put our young men & women in harm’s way unless it’s absolutely necessary and followed through on his promise to end the wars. I’m pleased President Obama called out the GOP on the 40 wasted attempts to repeal Obamacare at the cost of 1.5 million per try from the party who claims to not want to waste hard earned taxpayers’ money. I’m glad he’s raising minimum wage for federal workers and hopes to be an example for the states to follow his lead. I’m thrilled that he hinted that he will use an executive decision if needed when it comes to gun safety! Rebuttal, the Republican of three, Cathy McMorris Rogers, mentioned the Republicans’ vision to get help the poor and get the people working again. She offered no details on “how”. I find it ironic since the GOP ran on “jobs, jobs, jobs” and didn’t introduce any jobs’ bills. They did vote against jobs’ bills for our military.She claimed that it was the President’s fault for the income gap in America, forgetting that the Republicans didn’t introduce any jobs, their trickle down theory didn’t work even when corporations have been making record profits for the last four years. So disturbed that the GOP appointed judges of the supreme court didn’t have the respect to show up for the leader of the United States of America. Shameful.

Former State Rep. Ken Hawkins (R-Bedford): It seems nothing changed. Same ol Government can take care of you. I will use the pen and phone to do things Congress won't do. Minimum wage, women's wages, extend unemployment, stop dependence on foreign oil, and support early education. Even the immigration portion was the same old inequality slant. If he had said earlier that you have to work hard to get ahead as he did in discussing the injured soldier continuing fight to recover it would send a message to everyone that you can get ahead if you work hard, and don't think that the world owes you.

Former State Rep. candidate Kim Kojak (D-Merrimack): I feel very proud after watching the State of the Union speech! President Obama is leading our country in the right direction–affordable health care, ending long standing wars, advancing wages and educational opportunities, energy independence and investment in infrastructure and research. We are a great country and capable of truly great things.      


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