Mitch Daniels in 2012 State of the Union address

On Government Reform: Experiment in trickle-down government hurts middle class

In three short years, an unprecedented explosion of spending, with borrowed money, has added trillions to an already unaffordable national debt. And yet, the President has put us on a course to make it radically worse in the years ahead. The federal government now spends one of every four dollars in the entire economy; it borrows one of every three dollars it spends. No nation, no entity, large or small, public or private, can thrive, or survive intact, with debts as huge as ours.

The President's grand experiment in trickle-down government has held back rather than sped economic recovery. He seems to sincerely believe we can build a middle class out of government jobs paid for with borrowed dollars. In fact, it works the other way: a government as big and bossy as this one is maintained on the backs of the middle class, and those who hope to join it.

Source: GOP response to the 2012 State of the Union speech Jan 24, 2012

On Principles & Values: Government is meant to serve the people, not supervise them

When Pres. Obama claims that the state of our union is anything but grave, he must know in his heart that this is not true. The President did not cause the economic and fiscal crises. But he was elected on a promise to fix them, and he cannot claim that the last three years have made things anything but worse: the percentage of Americans with a job is at the lowest in decades. One in five men of prime working age, and nearly half of all persons under 30, did not go to work today. Source: GOP response to the 2012 State of the Union speech Jan 24, 2012

On Principles & Values: No "have-nots": just "haves," and "soon-to-haves"

Those punished most by the wrong turns of the last three years are those unemployed or underemployed tonight, and those so discouraged that they have abandoned the search for work altogether. And no one has been more tragically harmed than the young people of this country, the first generation in memory to face a future less promising than their parents did.

As Republicans our first concern is for those waiting tonight to begin or resume the climb up life's ladder. We do not accept that ours will ever be a nation of haves and have nots; we must always be a nation of haves and soon to haves.

In our economic stagnation and indebtedness, we are only a short distance behind Greece and other European countries now facing economic catastrophe. But because the world uses our dollar for trade, we have a short grace period to deal with our dangers. But time is running out, if we are to avoid the fate of Europe, and those once-great nations of history that fell from the position of world leadership.

Source: GOP response to the 2012 State of the Union speech Jan 24, 2012

On Social Security: Stop paying pension benefits to the wealthy

One item on our national must-do list: we must unite to save the safety net. Medicare and Social Security have served us well, and that must continue. But after 1/2 and 3/4 of a century respectively, it's not surprising that they need some repairs. We can preserve them unchanged and untouched for those now in or near retirement, but we must fashion a new, affordable safety net so future Americans are protected, too.

Decades ago we could afford to send millionaires pension checks and pay medical bills for even the wealthiest among us. Now, we can't, so the dollars we have should be devoted to those who need them most.

The mortal enemies of Social Security and Medicare are those who, in contempt of the plain arithmetic, continue to mislead Americans that we should change nothing. The better course is to stop sending the wealthy benefits they do not need, and stop providing them so many tax preferences that distort our economy and do little or nothing to foster growth.

Source: GOP response to the 2012 State of the Union speech Jan 24, 2012

On Tax Reform: Fewer loopholes and lower rates

The extremism that stifles the development of homegrown energy, or cancels a perfectly safe pipeline that would employ tens of thousands, or jacks up consumer utility bills for no improvement in either human health or world temperature, is a pro-poverty policy. It must be replaced by a passionate pro-growth approach that breaks all ties and calls all close ones in favor of private sector jobs that restore opportunity for all and generate the public revenues to pay our bills.

That means a dramatically simpler tax system of fewer loopholes and lower rates. A pause in the mindless piling on of expensive new regulations that devour dollars that otherwise could be used to hire somebody. It means maximizing on the new domestic energy technologies that are the best break our economy has gotten in years.

Source: GOP response to the 2012 State of the Union speech Jan 24, 2012

The above quotations are from 2012 State of the Union address to Congress, plus the Republican Response and the Tea Party response: Jan. 24, 2012. Click here for other excerpts from 2012 State of the Union address to Congress, plus the Republican Response and the Tea Party response: Jan. 24, 2012. Click here for other excerpts by Mitch Daniels. Click here for a profile of Mitch Daniels.
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Page last updated: Feb 24, 2019