Boehner Statement on President Obama’s SOTU Address: “Where Are the Jobs?”

We were pleased to welcome the President to the People’s House tonight for his annual address to the nation. We had hoped to hear a new commitment to keep his promises to govern from the center, change the tone in Washington, and work with both parties in a bipartisan way to help small businesses create jobs and get our economy moving again. Unfortunately, the President and the Democrats in charge of Congress still aren’t listening to the American people.

The American people were looking for President Obama to change course tonight, and they got more of the same job-killing policies instead. If the President and the Democratic leaders of Congress are serious about helping the middle class, they will abandon their job-killing agenda, which is making it harder for middle-class families and small businesses to save, invest, and hire. That includes a trillion-dollar ‘stimulus’ that isn’t working, a fiscally-irresponsible budget that doubles our debt in five years and triples it in 10, a costly government takeover of health care, and a massive national energy tax. The President’s message isn’t the problem, it’s his job-killing policies. The American people don’t want them, and that’s why they are saying ‘Enough is enough.’

For the last year, Republicans have been standing with the American people in asking the question: ‘where are the jobs?’ But all we have seen from Washington Democrats is more reckless spending and more unsustainable debt. Republicans have offered better solutions to help small businesses create jobs, lower health care premiums by up to 10 percent, and an ‘all-of-the-above’ strategy to clean up the environment, increase American energy production, and promote clean energy alternatives. It’s long past time for Democrats to start working with Republicans on common-sense solutions on behalf of middle-class families and small businesses struggling in this economy.