Washington, DC- U.S. Senator Jim Risch issued the following statement after tonight's State of the Union address by President Obama to a joint session of Congress.

"Tonight's speech was similar to last year, and the specifics, again, were vague. One year ago, the president spoke of fiscal responsibility, a revived economy and, most importantly, new jobs. What we ended up with was a back-breaking deficit, a continuation of frozen credit markets and higher unemployment.

"His plan for a temporary freeze on a small part of a bloated budget, just months after a double-digit percentage increase, will accomplish little, if anything.

"I was stunned by his continued push to enact a tax-increasing, premium-increasing and Medicare-reducing health care bill that the vast majority of Americans said they don't want. I really thought after last week's election in the most liberal state in America he would get it. He doesn't."

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