Utah congressmen frustrated by Obama's ‘re-election' address


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SALT LAKE CITY — President Barack Obama's State of the Union address was a powerful pitch from the president for his re-election bid. While it was tremendously optimistic, the Tuesday night speech came at a time he is under attack by Republicans who want his job.

It was a speech that essentially kicked off the president's re-election campaign: pro-America, calling for fairness in the tax code, and aimed at the Republicans running against him.

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"Three years ago we measured candidate Obama by his hopeful promises and his slogans, today President Obama has amassed an actual record of debt, decline and disappointment," Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has seed.

Fellow GOP candidate Newt Gingrich said of the president, "He has shifted from ‘yes we can' to ‘why we couldn't.'"

But the politics of the speech leaked into members of Congress as well: those discouraged by lingering unemployment, the memory of bailouts, and policy decisions they say are "bad."

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, offered a stinging rebuke of the president's words, calling his State of the Union address "a profound disappointment full of empty promises."

Frustration in the Senate has a unique quality. It is tinged by the Republican Party's desire to win a majority there this fall.


It's astonishing to me that he'll stand before us tonight and advocate for these policies that have impoverished America.

–Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah


Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, zeroed in on the president's economic policies. "It's astonishing to me that he'll stand before us tonight and advocate for these policies that have impoverished America," Lee said.

But Democrat Jim Matheson said he liked the president's message, and urged the two parties to work together better. Still, he admits the Obama administration could do better to create jobs.

"A big one for us (in Utah) is domestic energy development. I think it creates a huge opportunity for us," Matheson said. "The president's talking about what he's doing for domestic energy development, (but) it's not nearly enough. There's a lot more we can do."

It interesting to note that the official Republican response came from Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who's not well-known by the American public. Yet, to some he's a Republican Party presidential hopeful.

The response statement indicated the GOP will continue to blast away at President Obama when it comes to the economy, and what Daniels called the administration's "trickle down government."

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