Reactions to the State of the Union
Posted at 9:45 a.m. on Feb. 13
Below is a roundup of reactions to the policy proposals in President Obama’s State of the Union address. Check back throughout the day for updates and additional commentary.
Chris Cillizza: “Obama’s decision to save his remarks on guns until the end of the State of the Union, and to aggressively urge a vote on all of his gun proposals were, by far, the boldest portion of his speech… Obama’s comments on guns will be the lasting legacy of this speech and a sign that his past pledges to use all of his political power to bring about measures he believes will curb gun violence was not simply rhetoric.”
New York Times Editorial Board: “What is required to move the country forward is political will, which has been missing for too long. While many of the president’s proposals were familiar, and will probably be snuffed out by politics, his speech explained to a wide audience what could be achieved if there were even a minimal consensus in Washington.”
National Review Editorial Board: “His speech gave every indication that he remains a hostage to the superstition that we can spend our way to national prosperity — or that we can pass laws that will force employers, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and other businesses to spend our way to prosperity for us. That has failed for four years because it is bad economics and wishful thinking.”
Ron Fournier: “Rather than go big and bold, President Obama settled Tuesday night for incremental and pragmatic… The agenda he discussed Tuesday night was a mixture of old proposals and new ones fashioned on the cheap, bowing to the obstinacy of his GOP rivals and the brutal fiscal reality of the times.”
Greg Sargent: “the most important ideological moment in the speech came when he challenged the idea that reducing the deficit is good for the economy and renewed the push for more stimulus spending… We needed Obama to renew the case for more stimulus spending — while skewering the idea that reducing the deficit alone is good for the economy.”
