Central New York’s freshman congress member heard some things from President Obama that he thinks can get done in Washington, despite recent gridlock. But before considering any policy ideas, John Katko was a little taken by the moment of his first State of the Union Address.
“It was pretty amazing to be in a room with the entire supreme court, the entire senate, the entire congress, the entire cabinet, the entire joint
chiefs of staff, the president, the vice president and the speaker in the house. To be in a room with them gave me a real sense of history for
this country and a real sense of duty moving forward to make me want to work even harder than I am already working.”
MORE JOHN KATKO'S REACTION TO HIS FIRST STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS BELOW
He agrees with the president that college debt is crushing many people and families, though wonders if free community college is the right
answer. Katko also sees some people doing well from the recovering economy, though notes the average person in the district is still
struggling and may be un- or under employed. Mister Obama touted creation of 11,000,000 jobs, but also sought middle-class tax cuts to
help. Katko would favor tax cutting across the board. He believes there are issues, if not proposals, where the republican Congress can
reach agreement with the President.
“We gotta find common ground. We gotta take out what he said in different proposals and try and take from them the general premises and
try and craft bills he might be able to stomach and get to him. Or at least just try to get to him on issues and see what he does. That is about
all we can do.”
He isn’t ready to follow the President’s position on using more force against ISIS, instead he’d like to hear more from the Joint Chiefs of Staff
of the military. Looking out over the collected leaders at the State of the Union event, reminded him what an honor it was to be there, as well
as an hoor to represent his constituents.
