Pat Toomey: No Substance To State Of The Union Address
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey joined the chorus of Republican criticism aimed at President Obama's following his final State of the Union Address, claiming he's mismanaged the economy and is downplaying the threat of terrorism.
Speaking with Chris Stigall on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, Toomey said the President's speech was not a serious assessment of the current state of the country.
"It was one straw man after another. Rather than address the real serious challenges that we face with substance, with new ideas, with persuasive arguments in favor for how we get this economy really moving again, how we get middle class, working class folks getting ahead, rather than address that substance or how we're going to stay safe in a world that's very dangerous, in fact, I thought he diminished, at least rhetorically, the risks that we face. But rather than addressing those things substantively, it was just one straw man argument after another."
He also challenged the Obama's assertions of a strengthening economy, as well as the reasons for the economic collapse.
"The monetary policy of the fed, the regulatory policy, the congressional policy of forcing loans to people who couldn't pay it back, there's much more responsibility there than has ever been acknowledged by anybody in the administration...You could argue it might be happening again with mortgages. This is how well these folks learn. It's unbelievable. I would say I was disappointed except that implies that I had a different expectation and I really didn't."
Overall, Toomey does not think President Obama understands what is necessary to win the war against terrorism.
"I still think there's this huge disconnect between the national security risk that we face. My God, when we've got people getting killed in San Bernardino, we have a police officer being shot in Philadelphia, or when we see the appalling atrocities that ISIS is capable of and the completely new capacity they have to recruit followers all around the world through social media and other devices, that to me was just a huge shortcoming that the President didn't more thoroughly address that."
