McCarthy: Obama's State of the Union speech disappointing, but it's time to work together

 Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) gives us his weekly view from Capitol Hill. In his own words:

"As I was waiting to be ushered onto the House Floor before the State of the Union Address Tuesday night, I had a chance to briefly speak with President Obama. After exchanging pleasantries about our families and holidays, I expressed my hope that we could work together to move this country forward.

"While there were parts of the President’s speech where there is common ground, I was disappointed by its political nature. I have difficulty reconciling the fact that the President called for an all-of-the-above energy approach after he just rejected the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would have created 20,000 jobs and increased our energy security. In fact, it was an issue I addressed when responding to some of the comments and questions posed by Twitter followers. I also responded to tweets about the Senate’s failure to pass a budget, the importance of empowering small businesses to grow jobs and the need for tax reform. I’m a big believer in new media as an effective way to connect directly with you, and I hope that you will follow me on Twitter @GOPWhip and Facebook, if you’re not already.

"On Wednesday morning I participated in a panel with my whip counterpart, House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, and our colleagues to further discuss the President’s State of the Union Address. It’s always good to sit down with members from both sides of the aisle and get different perspectives. The bottom line is we need to get this country working again, and to do that we need to open the door for innovation and investment. Uncertainty about taxes, regulations and what the next policy coming from the Obama Administration might be is driving businesses to hold on to capital and delay investment. We need to unshackle our economy and allow it to grow again.
 
"That’s exactly what I witnessed on Friday in Mojave. I met with commercial space flight entrepreneurs at the Mojave Air & Space Port and visited the construction site for Stratolaunch Systems. 25 percent of all the jobs at the Mojave Air & Space Port are in commercial space flight. That’s a massive jump over the past decade, and one reason for that is smart legislation passed in 2004 that gave this industry room to grow while still protecting the safety of crew members and the public. However, the legislation is set to expire this year. The commercial space flight industry has great things ahead of it and has the potential to create even more jobs right in our backyard, so I am fighting to extend the provisions in this legislation that have proven effective over the past eight years. 

"I want to hear your thoughts on the President’s speech.  What did you agree with, what did you wish you’d heard more of?  Also, if you have any other comments or suggestions for me, please don’t hesitate to send me an email, call my office at 661-327-3611, or reach me on Facebook and Twitter.