Hudson: State of the Union shows how out of touch president is

Obama either read fiction or skipped a few chapters

As you know, last week President Barack Obama addressed the nation in his annual State of the Union speech to lay out his agenda for the year ahead.

U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson This Week in Washington

U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson
This Week in Washington

I was honored to have Cabarrus County Sheriff Brad Riley as my guest to represent all of North Carolina’s law enforcement officers who serve to protect our freedoms. As I sat on the House floor and listened to the president “turn the page” and describe his vision of our nation, I wondered what book he was reading. Line by line and page by page, his out-of-touch description of our nation and the world puzzled me. He described a robust economy where everyone has the job they want. He described a world free of terrorism and a cowering Vladimir Putin who has learned his lesson.

Despite the president’s assurance to the contrary, folks all across North Carolina are still suffering and our country faces difficult challenges. Veterans in our district who are still trying to find good-paying jobs and coming up empty-handed are fed up. Workers who are seeing hours slashed and wages decline because of government red tape and Obamacare’s uncertainties are frustrated. Families in our local communities who are struggling to make ends meet have lost hope.

I serve in Congress so I can fight for people, and that’s what motivates me to work hard every day to advance policies that make your life better. It’s your real stories that portray a union very different from President Obama’s utopia. While he touted the unemployment rate as a success, he failed to acknowledge individuals who are forced into part-time jobs because of his burdensome health care law and the nearly 93 million Americans who have dropped out of the workforce altogether. The fact is many middle class families do not feel the effects of a stronger economy and are not experiencing more opportunity.

At best, President Obama skipped a few important chapters, and at worst, he was reading from a fictional book. I wish he had addressed reforms to improve care for our veterans and presented an effective, long-term strategy to dismantle and defeat ISIS. His refusal to address the drivers of our debt, or the fiscal challenges we face, is an affront to hardworking taxpayers.

Further, the president laid out a new chapter that can only be summarized as a “war on the middle class.” Consider:

* Instead of proposing ideas to work with Congress, he chose to wave his veto pen and double-down on the same old, unilateral policies that hurt middle class families and hold our economy back.

* He failed to offer new initiatives, instead proposing more inefficient regulations, higher taxes, unworkable programs like Obamacare, and more government intervention in our lives.

* He refused to even consider bipartisan legislation that already passed the House, including a bill that would make it much easier for veterans to find good-paying jobs, even after declaring, “If you want somebody who’s going to get the job done, hire a veteran.”

While the president continues to turn a blind eye to the needs of middle class Americans and focus on his legacy, my colleagues and I will continue to fight for a better America with a smaller, more efficient government, a stronger economy that creates good-paying jobs, and a sound foreign policy that protects us at home and makes the world a safer place.

President Obama’s agenda takes our country in the wrong direction – I encourage him to put down his veto pen and join the 114th Congress in focusing on the priorities of the American people.

Richard Hudson, a Republican, represents the 8th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. The district includes a small part of Mecklenburg County and takes in all or parts of the counties of Cabarrus, Union, Randolph, Rowan, Davidson, Stanly, Anson, Montgomery, Richmond, Scotland and Robeson.

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  • Marcus Unchained

    It is a shame that people voted for this imbecile.

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