Ky. Sen. Rand Paul released the following video:
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell released this video:
Senator Dan Coats (R-Ind.) issued the following statement:
"Tonight I had the privilege of attending and hearing Governor Pence deliver the State of the State address in Indianapolis before watching the State of the Union address. These two speeches revealed a sharp contrast in leadership between Indianapolis and Washington, DC.Under the leadership of former Governor Mitch Daniels, current Governor Mike Pence and Republicans in the state legislature, Indiana has become a model for effective, efficient government. Unemployment is its lowest level since August 2001, budgets are balanced, new businesses are choosing to come to Indiana and the state has a $2 billion budget surplus. Today more Hoosiers are working than ever before in our state's history.
Under the leadership of President Obama, our national debt has more than doubled, more Americans are living in poverty than before the president took office and far too many young Americans are only working part-time. President Obama's foreign policy has left our country less safe and less secure. His signature health care law has increased costs and reduced coverage for millions.
What the American people saw tonight is a president divorced from reality. Despite President Obama's campaign pledge to unite our country, today the United States is deeply divided and nearly 70 percent of Americans say that our nation is on the wrong track.
President Obama said tonight that there is much work to be done, and on that count we agree. The president will pass along numerous challenges to his successor next year. As we prepare for that transition, there is no better playbook for getting America back on the right track than the one used by our leaders in Indiana."
Congressman Todd Young (R-IN) released this statement:
"Rather than use this scarce opportunity to assure the whole of the American people, President Obama spent the majority of his final State of the Union dictating his preferred presidential legacy. He did so using the pretext of the world as he wishes it would be—delivering a speech divorced from reality and the actual concerns of the American people.The Hoosiers I hear from in Indiana have a very different opinion of the last eight years under President Obama's stewardship. The rosy economic picture painted by the President is inconsistent with the situation of middle-class families and small businesses struggling to make ends meet. Especially when families and business owners struggle not in spite of President Obama's policies, but often as a direct result of them.
For tens of millions of Americans, higher premiums, skyrocketing deductibles, and stagnant wages are the defining characteristics of this presidency. For small businesses across Indiana, the Obama administration has become synonymous with an increased cost of doing business, tax increases, and overregulation.
I fear that for United States military personnel and veterans, President Obama's time in office will be defined by mismanagement, repeated failures, and a lack of leadership that will impact our national security for years to come.Unfortunate precedents have been set by this President's disregard for our system of government, and we must fight doggedly in the coming year to reverse course. That begins with demonstrating leadership where the Obama White House will not and taking necessary steps in Congress to guarantee the safety and security of the American people. If President Obama wants his legacy to be remembered by future generations of free Americans, he must stop eroding the rule of law, stop with unilateral executive actions on the domestic front and turn his focus to projecting strength abroad. I hope in the coming weeks he'll engage Congress in all these endeavors."
Congressman John Yarmuth (KY-3) issued this statement:
"Tonight, President Obama issued a wake-up call for both the American people and for this Congress. He acknowledged the progress we've made as a nation, and laid out a plan for where we can go from here. Under his leadership, we emerged from the Great Recession, revitalized manufacturing, invested in education and job training, and made access to affordable health care a right—not a privilege. But the President also reminded us that more must be done to address the problems we face and to continue to move our nation forward. We'll never be able to successfully take on these challenges unless we put the fear of change and division aside. I look forward to working with the President in his final year in office to make sure that the people who work so hard to make our country great have a say in the policies that impact their lives and futures."
