HARRISBURG – Republican Party of Pennsylvania Chairman Rob Gleason released the following statement in response to President Barack Obama’s First State of the Union Address:

 “After his agenda caused the Democratic Party to lose a critical U.S. Senate seat in one of bluest states in the nation, President Barack Obama claims he finally gets the message.  What the President fails to understand is that the country’s frustration lies directly with his big government agenda.  The Obama administration promised that his $787 billion economic stimulus experiment would keep unemployment under eight percent, but today the national unemployment rate is over ten percentage points and  over244,178 Pennsylvanians have lost their jobs since Obama took office.  Americans are irate because rather than focusing on getting America back to work, this Administration has consistently tried to use the economic crisis as a means to pass his expensive liberal agenda of cap-and-trade, government-run health care and unsustainable budgets.     

“Americans deserve to hear real solutions for moving our nation out of its current economic crisis that do not include empty gestures like a narrow spending stall and a debt commission that won’t convene for months.  Not to mention, the President was actually against the debt commission before he was for it.

“Americans have grown tired of President Obama’s speeches and are eager to see him abandon his pursuit of a big government agenda and enact free-market solutions to improve our nation’s economy.

“For our country’s sake, I hope that year two of the Obama administration is better than year one.”

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