The president is calling for a lot of investments that could go a long way in South Florida, including transportation, first responders, and the region's weak housing market. Florida Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz says all told the president laid out a solid, long term vision for the US economy.
“So talking about making sure that every child has access to a quality preschool education, making sure that we invest in innovation and high-tech jobs, making sure that in immigration reform we’re not continuing to educate other country’s young people and then sending them back over there to compete against us”, said Wasserman Schultz.Republicans are dubious about what they heard though. New Hampshire Republican Senator Kelly Ayotte says she likes President Obama’s vision but now she needs to see a blueprint.
“I didn’t hear how we are going to pay for them", Ayotte pointed out. "I think with $16 trillion in debt, you know obviously understanding with these proposals, how do we pay for them when we’re already facing a challenging fiscal situation right now? So that is certainly a question that I have.”
Florida freshman Democratic Congressman Patrick Murphy says he also wants to see the details of the president’s plan to pay for his agenda. But he says the State of the Union address offered at least one potential way.
“So I want to see that. One thing he did discuss was tax reform. Being a CPA I’m adamant about tax reform, because we have a broken tax system – no question about it", Murphy said. "The loopholes, the corporate welfare, the deductions that are just so egregious right now. We need to close those. We need to make it a fairer system.”
Before the president can move on to his jobs agenda he’ll have to work with House Republicans on fixing the nation’s finances, or else billions of dollars will start to be indiscriminately slashed from the federal budget in March.