Oklahoman: Oklahoma’s Delegation Reacts

Oklahoma’s congressional delegation reacted Wednesday to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address:

• Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Tulsa: "I was pleased to hear him advocate for increasing certain tax credits while creating incentives for retirement savings. We need real answers for the 15 million people without work. An approach similar to the failed $787 billion stimulus bill will not work. We need a serious approach to job creation that reduces the burden on the private sector, provides more for our national security and invests more to fix our crumbling highway infrastructure. We didn’t get that (Wednesday night).”

• Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Muskogee: "If President Obama wants to become the transformational leader he is capable of being, he needs to recognize he was given a mandate to unify the country, not drive through the agenda of the ideological left. This has been a year of hyper-partisanship in Washington because the president and congressional leadership have chosen a hyper-partisan, ideological agenda that has divided America. If the president brought the political center of the country together, he may not always get my vote but the country would be better off. Still, I make no apologies for saying no to the obscene abuse of taxpayer dollars that takes place as a matter of course in the United States Senate.”

• Rep. Mary Fallin, R-Oklahoma City: "I am glad the president focused his remarks on jobs and the economy, but I think Americans would agree he is about 12 months too late. For the past year, Americans have clearly asked this administration to focus on these two issues, but their concerns have fallen on deaf ears … The reality is that jobs will continue to vanish until the president abandons his liberal, big government ideas and realizes the best thing government can do to create jobs is to get out of the way.”

• Rep. Dan Boren, D-Muskogee: "I am pleased to see the president focusing on the economy and creating jobs. The announced spending freeze is also a positive first step toward reining in government spending. Oklahomans are tightening their belts and Congress needs to do the same. It is my hope that the president will engage in bipartisanship more than we’ve seen over his first year by reaching out to both Democrats and Republicans. It is also absolutely imperative that he make good on his promise to conduct the people’s business out in the open. When it comes to both bipartisanship and transparency in government, actions are more important than words.”

• Rep. Tom Cole, R-Moore: "The agenda President Obama outlined essentially promises more of the same: more spending, more burdens on American businesses and more symbolic measures that do nothing to provide real solutions to the challenges we face. I agree with the president that overcoming our problems requires a fresh approach and a spirit of cooperation. The American people have made it clear that they are tired of wasteful Washington spending and politics-as-usual. Unfortunately, President Obama and congressional Democrats appear committed to the same costly policies that have deepened the deficit and stifled economic growth for the past year.”

• Rep. John Sullivan, R-Tulsa: "President Obama had the opportunity to go back to the drawing board, and show the American people that he heard their message loud and clear; however, he failed to do that. Instead of changing course, and taking divisive issues such as his health care plan and his cap-and-tax plan off the table, he reiterated his support for the same partisan policies that has stoked the ire of families and small businesses across the country. When voters in Massachusetts elect the candidate who promises to kill the nationalized health care bill, what makes the administration think voters anywhere else support it?”

• Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Cheyenne: "I was pleased to see President Obama chose to focus much of his first State of the Union address on our country’s ailing economy … However, many of the proposals he announced tonight appear to be in direct contrast with each other. For example, he proposed a three-year freeze on all discretionary, non-defense spending while also proposing a 6.2 percent increase in education funding and promoting his estimated $800 billion to $1.2 trillion government takeover of health care.”

# # #