Much of President Barack Obama’s speech was dominated by talk of the economy. He proposed investments in clean energy, biomedical research, high-speed rail and high-speed Internet connections which many Republicans see as new spending opportunities.
“It’s no surprise President Obama wants more federal spending. On top of the trillions he’s already spent and the trillions he’s added to the national debt, he wants even more. As highly dangerous as that is, it’s just Obama being Obama,” said conservative writer Richard Viguerie. “But it’s disappointing that Republicans have so far not come up with a serious plan to rescind the enormous spending of the Democratic and Republican Administrations going back to Bill Clinton.”
There were some moments of agreement and shared elation between the parties. The Huffington Post said, “There was less of the see-saw applause typical of State of the Union speeches in years past, where Democrats stood to applaud certain lines and Republicans embraced others. Members of the two parties found plenty of lines worthy of bipartisan applause.”
