[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 16 (Tuesday, January 28, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S493-S495]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           STATE OF THE UNION

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, tonight Members of both parties will 
welcome the President to the Capitol as he lays out his plans for the 
year. We look forward to hearing what he has to say. We also look 
forward to hearing what Congresswoman McMorris Rodgers has to say, too. 
She is a leader in our party with a compelling story, someone who truly 
understands what it means to overcome adversity, someone who is 
dedicated to helping every single American realize her greatest 
potential. The people of Washington's Fifth District are lucky to have 
her, and so are we.
  As for the President's speech, this is a pivotal moment in the Obama 
Presidency. We are now entering our sixth year with President Obama at 
the helm of our economy, the sixth year of his economic policies. At 
this point we have seen just about everything in the President's tool 
box. We had a years-long clinic on the failures of liberalism: the 
government stimulus, the taxes, the regulations, the centralization, 
and the government control. It just has not worked.
  So 74 percent of the American people say it still feels as if the 
country is in

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a recession because to them it still feels like it. As the majority 
leader likes to say, the rich have gotten richer and the poor have 
gotten poorer, and ladders into the middle class have been kicked away, 
sawed off, and literally regulated into oblivion.
  This is the legacy of the Obama economy, as we stand here at the 
start of 2014. But it does not have to be the legacy President Obama 
leaves behind in January of 2017, and that is why tonight's address is 
so important--because it will give us the clearest indication yet of 
whether the President is ready to embrace the future or whether he 
will, once again, take the easy route, the sort of reflexive liberal 
route, and just pivot back to the failed policies of the past. The 
choice the President now confronts is a pretty basic one. Does he want 
to be a hero to the left or a champion for the middle class? He can't 
be both. He has to choose.
  He could double down on the failed policies that brought us to this 
point. It would make his base pretty happy, I am sure, but we certainly 
know where that path leads for the middle class. Folks can try to 
package it any way they like--say it is a new focus on income 
stagnation that has gotten so much worse under this President's watch. 
But it is essentially the same path we have been on since he took 
office. The point is this. Americans do not need a new message; they 
need a new direction. The problem is not the packaging. It never has 
been. It is the policies themselves, and President Obama is the only 
person who can force that turn in direction. He is the only one who can 
lead it.
  He could reach to the center tonight and embrace change over the 
broken status quo, embrace hope over stale ideology--ideology that has 
led not just to stagnant incomes but to lower median incomes, to 
dramatic increases in the number of folks forced to take part-time work 
when what they really want is full-time work, to greater long-term 
unemployment, and to more poverty. He could ask Members of both parties 
to help him make 2014 a year of real action rather than just a talking 
point.
  If he does, he is going to find he has a lot of support from 
Republicans because we want to work with him to get things done, and we 
always have. We will be listening closely to see if he is finally 
prepared to meet us in the political middle so we can finally get some 
important work done for the middle class. Let's be honest; there is a 
lot that can be done.
  For instance, he could call on Senate Democrats to stop blocking all 
the job-creation bills the House of Representatives has already passed. 
He could call for revenue-neutral tax reform that would abolish 
loopholes, lower tax rates for everyone, and jump-start job creation 
where it counts--in the private sector. He could push his party to join 
Republicans supporting bipartisan trade promotion legislation, 
something the President has said is a priority, and work aggressively 
to clinch the kind of job-creating trade agreements our allies in 
places such as Canada and Europe and Australia have already been 
seeking.
  He could work with us to reduce the debt and deficit to ensure the 
programs Americans count on will be there when they retire, to make 
government smarter and leaner, and to unshackle the growth potential of 
small businesses and entrepreneurs to address the massive 
dissatisfaction out there with the size and the scope of government.
  If President Obama wants to score an easy win for the middle class, 
he could simply put the politics aside and approve the Keystone 
pipeline. The Keystone pipeline is thousands of American jobs very 
soon. With regard to the Keystone pipeline, he will not even need to 
use the phone--just the pen. One stroke and the Keystone pipeline is 
approved.
  I know the Keystone issue is difficult for him because it involves a 
choice between pleasing the left and helping the middle class, but that 
is exactly the type of decision he needs to make. He needs to make it 
now. It is emblematic of the larger choices he will need to make about 
the direction of our country too, because for all of his talk of going 
around Congress, he would not have to if he actually tried to work with 
the people's elected representatives every now and then. I am saying 
don't talk about using the phone, just use the phone and please be 
serious when you call.
  Take the income inequality issue we hear he will address tonight. Is 
this going to be all rhetoric or is he actually serious, because he is 
correct to point out that the past few years have been very tough on 
the middle class. As I indicated, median household income has dropped 
by thousands since he took office. Republicans want to work with him on 
this issue but only if he is serious about it. He could show us he is 
by calling for more choices for underprivileged children trapped in 
failing schools or he could agree to work with Senator Rand and me to 
implement Economic Freedom Zones in our poorest communities.
  Here is something else: He could work with us to relieve the pain 
ObamaCare is causing for so many Americans across the country, across 
all income brackets. I asked him last year to prepare Americans for the 
consequences of this law. He did not do it. Today those consequences 
are plain for anyone to see.
  Just last night I hosted a tele-townhall meeting where Kentuckians 
shared their stories about the stress that ObamaCare is causing them 
and their families: restricted access to doctors and hospitals, lost 
jobs, lower wages, fewer choices, and higher costs. I assure you these 
folks will not be applauding when the President is trying to spin this 
law as a success tonight. More than a quarter million Kentuckians lost 
the plans that they had and presumably wanted to keep, despite the 
President's promises to the contrary. This is a law that caused 
premiums to increase an average of 47 percent in Kentucky and in some 
cases more than 100 percent. This is a law that in some parts of my 
State is limiting choices to health care coverage to just two companies 
in the individual exchange market.
  At what cost to the taxpayer for all of this? It is $253 million. 
That is how much Washington has spent so far for these results in my 
State--a quarter of a billion dollars to essentially limit care, cancel 
plans, and increase costs.
  Kentucky has gotten more money to set up its exchange than every 
State except for California, New York, Oregon, and Washington--that is 
a lot of money--and they still only enrolled 30 percent of the people 
they were supposed to at this point. How in the world could that be 
considered a success?
  So President Obama and Governor Beshear can keep telling Americans to 
``get over it'' if they don't like this law, but sooner or later they 
are going to have to come to terms with reality. They are going to have 
to accept that ObamaCare hasn't worked as the administration promised 
in Kentucky and across America, and it is time to start over with real 
reform.
  That is why tonight I hope the President will make change. I hope he 
will announce his willingness to work with both parties to start over 
with real bipartisan reform that can actually lower costs and improve 
quality of care. That is the kind of reform Kentuckians and Americans 
want, and that is the way President Obama can show he is serious about 
having a year of action. This time next year we will be able to judge 
if he was serious.
  If the President is still talking about unemployment benefits next 
January rather than how to manage new growth, if he is still forced to 
address the pain of ObamaCare rather than touting the benefits of 
bipartisan health care reform, if we are trapped in these endless cul 
de sacs of Keystone and trade and tax reform, then we will know what 
choice the President made. We will know the special interests won and 
the middle class lost.
  I hope we won't get there. I hope he will reach out tonight. I hope 
he will be serious. I hope he will help us chart a new path for the 
American people both parties can support. That may sound like a fantasy 
to some on the hard left who think tonight is all about them, but the 
fact is there have always been good ideas the two parties can agree on 
in Washington--ideas that would make life easier, not harder, for 
working Americans. Until now the President has mostly chosen to ignore 
them. Here is hoping for something different tonight.

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