Excerpts from the Republican Response to the

President's State of the Union Address

Delivered by Governor Mitch Daniels, Indiana

"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."

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"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."

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"It's not fair and it's not true for the President to attack Republicans in Congress as obstacles on these questions. They and they alone have passed bills to reduce borrowing, reform entitlements, and encourage new job creation, only to be shot down nearly time and again by the President and his Democrat Senate allies."

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"No feature of the Obama Presidency has been sadder than its constant efforts to divide us, to curry favor with some Americans by castigating others. As in previous moments of national danger, we Americans are all in the same boat. If we drift, quarreling and paralyzed, over a Niagara of debt, we will all suffer, regardless of income, race, gender, or other category. If we fail to shift to a pro-jobs, pro-growth economic policy, there will never be enough public revenue to pay for our safety net, national security, or whatever size government we decide to have."

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"2012 must be the year we prove the doubters wrong. The year we strike out boldly not merely to avert national bankruptcy but to say to a new generation that America is still the world's premier land of opportunity. Republicans will speak for those who believe in the dignity and capacity of the individual citizen; who believe that government is meant to serve the people rather than supervise them; who trust Americans enough to tell them the plain truth about the fix we are in, and to lay before them a specific, credible program of change big enough to meet the emergency we are facing."

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National Federation of Republican Women Disappointed in Tone, Content of President's Address

State of Union Short on Solutions, Long on Rhetoric

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Rae Lynne Chornenky, president of the National Federation of Republican Women (NFRW), issued the following statement regarding President Barack Obama's State of the Union address:   "If last night's State of the Union Address is any indication, the American people can expect another year of ineffective leadership and failed policies from President Barack Obama. Instead of presenting a cogent plan for bringing our nation together to solve our urgent fiscal and economic problems, the President chose to deliver a divisive campaign speech in which he ramped up the class warfare rhetoric.   "It's just more of the same from a President who, as Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said in his Republican response, was elected on a promise to fix our fiscal and economic crises, but 'cannot claim that the last three years have made things anything but worse.'   "Fortunately, the American people have an opportunity to change course in November by electing a true leader who will unite us and place us back on the path to prosperity."   Founded in 1938, the NFRW has thousands of active members in local clubs across the nation and in several U.S. territories, making it one of the largest women's political organizations in the country. The grassroots organization works to promote the principles and objectives of the Republican Party, elect Republican candidates, inform the public through political education and activity, and increase the effectiveness of women in the cause of good government. For more information about the NFRW, visit www.nfrw.org