The official Republican response to President Obama’s state of the union address only briefly made reference to the president’s recent unilateral actions on immigration, despite the fact that the issue has the party’s base steaming.
Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, tapped by Republicans to give the party’s official response to Obama’s State of the Union address, didn’t explicitly mention immigration in her televised response on Tuesday evening, but pledged in her remarks that the GOP majority would “work to correct executive overreach.” That language is often used by Republicans to describe their anger with how the president went about ordering the halt in deportation of millions of illegal immigrants last year.
Ernst spent most of her speech Tuesday arguing that voters sent a message at the polls in November that they don’t agree with Obama’s liberal vision for America.
“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.”
Ernst, a former state lawmaker who was just elected to the U.S. Senate in November, said: “We see our neighbors agonize over stagnant wages and lost jobs. We see the hurt caused by canceled healthcare plans and higher monthly insurance bills. We see too many moms and dads put their own dreams on hold while growing more fearful about the kind of future they’ll be able to leave to their children.”
“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. “It’s a mindset that gave us political talking points, not serious solutions.”
In her remarks, Ernst listed a number of Republican priorities in the new Congress: She specifically mentioned Republican efforts to approve construction of the Keystone Pipeline, which Republicans argue will create jobs and help lower energy prices.
“President Obama will soon have a decision to make: will he sign the bill, or block good American jobs?” Ernst added.
Ernst, a veteran, referenced radical Islamic terrorism from organizations like ISIS, saying: “We know threats like these can’t just be wished away.”
She also said the Congress will “work to confront Iran’s nuclear ambitions.”
Ernst said Republicans will “propose ideas that aim to cut wasteful spending and balance the budget — with meaningful reforms, not higher taxes like the President has proposed.”
“The new Republican Congress also understands how difficult these past six years have been,” Ernst said in her speech. “For many of us, the sting of the economy and the frustration with Washington’s dysfunction weren’t things we had to read about. We felt them every day.”
