Paul Ryan's State of the Union Response Focused on Reducing Spending to Create a Higher Deficit

Two responses were created to the State of the Union address President Obama delivered on Jan. 25, 2011. Both developed within the Republican Party, but only Rep. Paul Ryan's speech was delivered with the authority of the party behind it. The other rebuttal came from the Tea Party movement and featured Michelle Bachmann, according to the Guardian.

Bachmann's speech was poorly executed and featured her staring at a point off-camera for the entire speech and making the illogical choice of comparing the budget crisis to the Battle of Iwo Jima. For these two specific reasons and multiple others, her rebuttal doesn't deserve a serious seat at the table, but the official Republican response does.

President Obama's State of the Union address focused on a variety of issues while always returning to the deficit and specific issues he wants to see resolved. One of these issues is closing tax loopholes that allow companies and industries with slick accountants and lawyers to avoid paying taxes. The President stated, according to the Huffington Post, "Get rid of the loopholes. Level the playing field. And use the savings to lower the corporate tax rate for the first time in 25 years -- without adding to our deficit."

While the President did not throw out definitive statistics on the revenue that would be generated by closing tax loopholes, Paul Ryan's speech did not even deal in presenting the bare bones of problems and solutions. The only spending mentioned specifically was Obama's stimulus plan and healthcare reform bill, both of which were mentioned in a negative manner with vague generalities tacked on as statistics.

For example, Paul Ryan on health care reform: "Costs are going up, premiums are rising, and millions of people will lose the coverage they currently have." The final point of that remark is a consistent piece of Republican rhetoric that finds a slight foothold in reality with an incarnation of the bill different than the one passed. Politifact.com explained that when a public option was discussed it was speculated that millions of people would switch from the coverage they already had to a public option.

Ryan was largely critical of President Obama and "his party" throughout his speech, which gave it a partisan tone the President avoided throughout the State of the Union. Ryan reflected on the deficit and used words like "crushing" and "catastrophic" while the President focused on the fact that ingenuity, education and determination will create the industry of tomorrow and the energy independence needed to generate jobs for the American people and revenue for the government.

In terms of actionable goals and solutions that benefit the average American person, President Obama's speech laid out the best plan for our future and did it without flinging mud and without taking cheap shots at citizens as Ryan did when he described a compassionate future as "a future in which we will transform our social safety net into a hammock, which lulls able-bodied people into lives of complacency and dependency."

Ryan's speech was ineffective rhetoric that presented vague generalizations in tune with his "Roadmap for America's Future" - a future in which we will transform our social safety net into a hammock, which lulls the top 5 percent of American earners into lives of accepting tax cuts that will increase the deficit by over a trillion dollars while cutting programs that benefit the 90 percent of Americans who will be paying higher taxes.

Obama's plan requires real hard work for people and for industry while Ryan's plan requires hard times for much of the populace. Obama's plan will work best if it is allowed to reach fruition.

Sources:

Ed Pilkington. "Michelle Bachmann's Tea Party Overdrive Mocked for Obama Response." The Guardian.
"Healthcare Reform Does Not Increase Premiums and Boot People Out of Their Coverage." Politifact.com.
Krugman, Paul. "The Flim Flam Man." The New York Times.
"The Roadmap Plan." Roadmap.Republicans.Budget.House.gov.
"Obama State of the Union Speech Full Text and Video." The Huffington Post.
"GOP State of the Union Response: Full Paul Ryan Text." CBS News.