Tag: State Of The Union

President Obama's call to increase domestic energy production Tuesday received a rosy reception from Colorado's lefty lawmakers but was all but ignored by its conservative congressional delegation who are still smarting from the commander-in-chief's recent blocking of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

President Obama in his State of the Union speech last night laid out the no-brainer case again for deficit reduction through a return to tax code fairness. The speech came hours after multi-millionaire Republican primary frontrunner Mitt Romney released the low-rate, off-shore income tax returns he submitted last year-- returns that among sensible people will devastate Republican trickle-down economics talking points on tax policy and government finances. What else happened to Mitt Romney this week?

Popular Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels has been chosen to deliver the Republican response to President Obama's State of the Union address tonight. Ideas about how best the government might respond to the limping economy and tackle the enormous federal budget deficit are sure to feature prominently in both speeches. Daniels comes to such a discussion with baggage, however, having head the Office of Management and Budget under George W. Bush from 2001 to 2003, when the projected budget surplus of $236 billion ran down the sink hole to become a $400 billion deficit.

Colorado Democratic Senator Mark Udall has led an effort over the last two years to "bridge the divide" that has marked presidential State of the Union addresses by seeking to institute bipartisan seating. Udall's plan to make progress on Capitol Hill by any means possible including symbolic gesture has met with mixed success. Colorado Republican Congressman Doug Lamborn, for example, one of the most conservative members of Congress, has announced not only that he's not mixing this year but also that he plans to not attend the speech at all as a way to send his own symbolic message.

Americans have endured with disgust a year of historic partisan gridlock in Washington, where the Republican-controlled House clashed with President Obama and the Democratic-controlled Senate on matters of economic policy, debt reduction, taxes, abortion and the environment. Poll after poll reports that citizens hate the ideological bickering and posturing which, in addition to failing to address their concerns, saw the U.S. lose its elite 70-year-old AAA credit rating. The only solution, according to National TeaParty blog RedState, is to demand Republican members of the House become even more intransigent and ideologically driven.

Senator Michael Bennet this week was named one of the nation's top education activists by Time Magazine.

Colorado Senator Mark Udall's proposal that Democratic and Republican members of the House and Senate abandon the segregated State of the Union seating of years past and sit together Tuesday night has caught on. Udall plans to sit with GOP members of the Colorado delegation. South Carolina GOP Rep. Joe Wilson, who heckled the president last year, is sitting with Democratic colleagues from the House Armed Services Committee. Former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi turned down a seating invitation from GOP majority leader Eric Cantor, but she plans to sit with GOP Maryland Rep. Roscoe Bartlett.

Democratic Colorado Sen. Mark Udall today echoed the sentiments of President Barack Obama’s emotional memorial speech in Tucson, urging both houses of Congress to cross the aisles and sit together during Obama’s upcoming State of the Union address.

The full prepared text of the State of the Union Speech is now online. The president just ad-libbed after recounting the tax cutting his...

Conservative responses planned for the State of the Union will have a new flavor this year. Take this run-up event, where Florida U.S. Rep....