President Obama will deliver the State of the Union tonight, and Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) is expecting the speech will lead to even more political division.
The Janesville Republican says he would like to think the president will talk about being a moderator, who is willing to work across the aisle to focus on tax reform and balancing the budget. However, he does not think it will actually happen. Ryan says there are a lot of proposals that centrists Democrats agree with the GOP on, but Obama has been rejecting every single one of them.
Ryan, who serves as House Budget Committee Chairman, does not expect a lot of positives to come out of the speech or for the president to tell Congress to do what the people want, which he says is working together to get things done. He says his fear is that Obama will “tack harder to the left” and start more political fights, rather than bringing people together.
AUDIO: Rep. Paul Ryan (:14)
Ryan says he would like to see the president change his tune and start working on getting the parties to cooperate, but he’s not holding his breath about that happening in tonight’s speech.
Contributed by Tom Karkow, WRJN