Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

state of the union:

Nevada delegation’s response: 2 thumbs up, 2 thumbs down and a couple of shrugs

Harry Reid

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada returns to Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2015, for the first time since suffering injuries after an exercise accident.

Updated Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2015 | 10:32 a.m.

President Barack Obama laid out an ambitious vision for the country for his last two years in office, and Nevada's lawmakers were split down party lines about whether that's a good thing.

In his second-to-last State of the Union address, Obama triumphantly declared that his energy, health care and economic policies were working for the middle class.

"So the verdict is clear," Obama said. "Middle-class economics works. Expanding opportunity works. And these policies will continue to work, as long as politics don't get in the way."

Obama then called for plans that have little or no chance of passing a newly emboldened Republican Congress, from a national paid-leave policy, to two free years of community college, to acting immediately on climate change.

Obama was speaking as much to voters gearing up for a wide open presidential election as he was to the members of Congress who gathered to hear him in person. In the House chamber, party lines were easily distinguished by those who regularly stood to applaud and those who sat mum.

Nevada's six congressional lawmakers were quick to share their opinions. Here's what they had to say immediately after the president's 65-minute speech.

Sen. Harry Reid: "Obama laid out a clear vision"

Nevada's senior Democrat and the Senate minority leader watched the speech from home, where he is continuing to recover from an exercise injury.

Reid liked what he saw.

"President Obama laid out a clear vision for strengthening America’s middle class that draws a clear contrast with the Republican Congress' partisan political agenda," Reid said in a statement.

Reid has been pushing Obama's message in the Senate that Congress needs to ensure the economic recovery reaches the middle class as well, and that Republicans in Congress stand in the way.

Sen. Dean Heller: "Obama failed to offer … a road map"

In person, Nevada's Republican senator politely clapped and smiled at many of Obama's mentions of economic recovery.

But in a statement after the speech, Heller blasted the president's path for America, saying "out-of-control spending, a costly health care law and a seemingly endless stream of red tape are wreaking havoc on Nevada's families and small businesses."

Heller had a very different idea than Reid of what the next two years of a Republican Senate will bring.

"The Senate’s new majority is certainly a breath of fresh air and our focus is to keep the priorities of hardworking taxpayers at the forefront," he said in the statement.

Rep. Dina Titus: "The president went all in for the middle class"

During the speech, Titus, a Las Vegas Democrat, barely had time to sit down before it was time to give Obama another standing ovation.

The stalwart Democrat thought the president's bold actions to invest in immigration, education and infrastructure were exactly what Nevadans need to invest in their future. And in a prepared statement, she took some shots at her Republican counterparts:

“We've got to stop asking the modern-day robber barons, ‘How much is enough?’ while telling hungry children, working women, and minimum wage earners, ‘it's not much, but it's enough,’" she said in a statement.

Rep. Mark Amodei: silence

Amodei, a Northern Nevada Republican, decided to watch the State of the Union on TV instead of in person.

His spokesman, Brian Baluta, said Amodei is not a fan of the evening’s pomp and circumstance, and Amodei declined to give a comment or prepared statement after the speech.

"His mother taught him if he doesn't have anything nice to say, don't say it at all," Baluta said in an email.

Rep. Joe Heck: Mixed feelings

Heck, a Republican from the evenly split Democratic and Republican suburbs of Las Vegas, had tepid applause for many of Obama's policy points.

Heck stood up when Obama spoke about how far the economy has come, and how many jobs have been created, but he stayed in his seat when Obama spoke about his plans to increase the minimum wage and fight climate change.

In a Facebook post Wednesday, Heck said the president proposed policies that divide the nation and chose to ignore Republicans’ electoral victories in November.

"This all appears lost on the President as last night he struck a confrontational tone, issuing four separate veto threats," the post read.

Rep. Cresent Hardy: "He played politics"

Nevada's newest member of Congress was literally blinded by the bright lights of the State of the Union.

"All I see is horizon now," he joked in an interview after the speech.

Obama's speech was disappointing for Hardy, a Republican representing North Las Vegas and central Nevada.

"My biggest reaction is, I'd like to see this bipartisanship that he talks about continuously," Hardy said, adding the only aisle-reacher he felt Obama extended was discussion of international trade deals, which Republicans tend to support.

Hardy said Obama didn't deserve to take credit for a recovering economy, saying the private sector has chugged along in spite of Obama, not because of him.

"He wants to take credit for issues that he's fought fully against," Hardy said.

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