Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, delivering the GOP response to the State of the Union, said President Biden and Democrats “have sent us back in time to the late ’70s and early ’80s” with reminders of runaway inflation, violent crime and a time when “the Soviet army was trying to redraw the world map.”
The big picture: Reynolds’ speech, reflecting themes Republicans will campaign on as they seek to retake control of Congress in the midterms, was just one of several responses to Biden’s address.
- Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) delivered one for the progressive Working Families Party. Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas) gave one for the Congressional Black Caucus. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) spoke for the right-wing group Women for America First.
- Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), the co-chairs of the House Problem Solvers Caucus, also offered a “Problem Solvers Perspective” with the bipartisan group No Labels.
What they’re saying: Reynolds said Republicans are leading a “pro-parent, pro-family revolution” as Republicans campaign on a parent’s bill of rights and fight to win control of school boards.
- “They have a right to know, and to have a say in, what their kids are being taught.”
- Tlaib centered her speech on Biden’s Build Back Better spending plan even as she conceded it’s “stalled” in the Senate.
- “Mr. President, the work is unfinished. But we are ready to jumpstart our efforts again,” she said, while also lavishing praise on parts of his agenda that passed.
Gottheimer and Fitzpatrick took note of the rarity of a bipartisan State of the Union response. “That’s not something you see very often,” Fitzpatrick said.
- Gottheimer said lawmakers should try to compromise on policy and get “80% of something, rather than 100% of nothing.”
- Allred said the Black Caucus is “committed to delivering the president’s agenda,” specifically Build Back Better. “We call on the Senate to take up this bill and to put it on President Biden’s desk for him to sign it into law.”
- Greene called her response “the actual state of the union. The state of the union the media tries to hide from you. The state of Joe Biden’s America,” taking aim at “Democrat authoritarian pandemic shutdown policies.”
- On Ukraine, Greene criticized Biden for sending troops to Eastern Europe to “defend another country’s border,” accusing “war-hawks, globalist elites and neo-cons” of “beating the drums of war.”
Source: axios.com
