In tonight’s State of the Union address, President Obama outlined what remains the most critical challenge facing our nation today: creating jobs and opportunity for middle class families. Now six years after the national recession, many families remain left behind, unable to retain steady, well-paying jobs. To that end, it is essential that Republicans and Democrats continue to work together to create jobs, grow the economy, and help our families move forward. In December, members of both parties came together to pass a bipartisan budget agreement that did away with some of the reckless, across-the-board cuts that threatened our businesses and weakened the economy. Now, as the President agreed, it is essential that we build on this momentum and continue to work together to address the critical issues facing our nation. I applaud the President’s support for increasing the federal minimum wage. This will help many of our hardest working friends and neighbors earn a living and support their families. Looking forward, we must continue to focus in the coming months on expanding opportunities for middle class families and supporting small businesses, the backbone of our economy. We must continue to invest in developing a 21st Century workforce. We must continue our work to reduce the deficit in a balanced, responsible way, and we must preserve Social Security and Medicare to help our seniors retire with dignity. We have made some progress, but to truly address the challenges in front of us, we must put politics aside and continue our work together. I look forward to working with the President and with members of both parties in the months ahead to find bipartisan, common sense solutions to the challenges we face and to move our country forward.
Posted on: Wed, 29 Jan 2014 03:25:50 +0000