Hultgren: President's Economic Policies Will Lead Nation on Same Path as Illinois' Fiscal Crisis

U.S. Congressman Randy Hultgren said people only need to look at the fiscal state of Illinois to see where the fiscal policies of President Barack Obama will lead the country.

“The bottom line is we have seen in Illinois exactly what the outcome of the Obama era policies are. We’ve seen first-hand as the state has increased taxes, increased spending ... and lost jobs. The state continues to come apart at the seams. That’s what will happen at the federal level, too, as a result of the president’s policies. We know this. We’ve seen it before firsthand in our state. And if you keep doing what you’re doing, you’re going to keep getting what you’ve already got,” Hultgren said in a press release.

During his annual State of the Union address to the nation Obama argued for an active government role to tackle inequality, education and the economy, which includes a call to raise the minimum wage to $9 an hour. Obama proposed funding infrastructure projects and energy research. He said green jobs will drive future employment growth, The Washington Post reported.

With national unemployment figures hovering near 8 percent and the threat of automatic spending cuts looming, the president “emphasized that his proposals would not add to the $854 billion deficit, only reallocate money already in the budget to finance them,” the Post reported.

Following the president’s annual address, Hultgren, who represents the 14th District which includes Kane and Kendall counties, said the president’s policies will break the nation economically. Hultgren, a Winfield Republican, said Obama pledged to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term when he delivered his first State of the Union address in 2009.Hultgren said Obama failed on his promises to cut the federal debt, and instead added approximately $6 trillion.

“With the president this evening saying ‘Nothing I’m proposing tonight should increase our deficit by a single dime' I think even the most impartial observer would conclude he simply has no credibility left at this point,’” Hultgren said.