President Barrack Obama’s State of the Union Address included tax proposals, new approaches to immigration and a push for free education but Alaska’s leaders were not impressed.
U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski said increasing taxes to help the middle class was a step backwards and she had hoped for more of an effort to work together to create American jobs.
Sen. Murkowski: “I don’t think that most of us view that government is that answer, and in the President’s speech tonight not only did he say government was the answer but if you don’t like the proposals that I’m putting forward, I’m going to veto it. That’s not cooperation, that’s not governing together so it was a bit of a disappointment from my perspective tonight.”
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U.S. Representative Don Young also weighed in…
Rep. Young: “This individual who serves in the White House now has talked about class warfare from the time he’s got in, he wants to take money from the rich and give it to the poor, but how do you give money to the poor without having a nanny state, a social state? What you have to do is create wealth, through the resources in the state of Alaska and we’ve been precluded from doing so, he is not creating real jobs, the economy is made on what we call service jobs, not manufacturing, and I think what he has presented to congress is a confrontation which he likes to do.”
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Junior U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan also issued a release along the same lines, saying he had hoped for more demonstration of a willingness to work with Congress to govern responsibly but “Unfortunately, what the American people heard tonight were the same failed policies of the past six years – more unsustainable spending, more burdensome taxes, more job-killing regulations, and the President even touted how much federal land he has locked up.”
2015 State of the Union Address
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