WASHINGTON — The new Republican Congress understands Americans’ suffering from the economy, health care system and Washington gridlock — and it will steer the country away from President Barack Obama’s failed policies, the newly minted senator delivering her party’s official response to the State of Union address promised Tuesday.
Mixing calls for bipartisanship with a flexing of GOP muscle, freshman Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, cited Americans’ worries about stagnant wages, lost jobs and canceled health care coverage. She called on Obama to cooperate with Republicans to simplify the tax code by lowering rates and eliminating unspecified loopholes and to ease trade barriers with Europe and Asia.
Yet Ernst also listed a parade of looming clashes with the president, including GOP efforts to force construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, to balance the budget without raising taxes and to restrict abortions.
“Americans have been hurting. But when we demanded solutions, too often Washington responded with the same stale mindset that led to failed policies like Obamacare,” Ernst said, referring to the Obama health care overhaul. “It’s a mindset that gave us political talking points, not serious solutions.”
Ernst’s speech marked her party’s first State of the Union response under Obama in which the GOP has held House and Senate majorities. It came as Republicans hope to expand their appeal among women and minorities ahead of the 2016 presidential and congressional elections.
“We heard the message you sent in November, loud and clear,” she said. “And now we’re getting to work to change the direction Washington has been taking our country.”
Tuesday’s speeches came with economic growth accelerating and unemployment falling. In his remarks, Obama said it was time to “turn the page” on years of war and economic weakness and turn to investments that would strengthen the country.
Ernst called to “simplify America’s outdated and loophole-ridden tax code, iron out loopholes to lower rates — and create jobs, not pay for more government spending.”
She cited the GOP’s dispute with Obama over the proposed Keystone pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast. With support from some Democrats, Republicans call the project a job creator while the White House has threatened a veto because of fears of environmental damage.
