Reports noted that as the date of President Obama’s State of the Union’s Address approaches, Congressional Republicans warned that they would oppose any new spending initiatives and press ahead with their plans for budget cuts in every realm of government, including the military. With Obama planning to call for “investments” of tax dollars in specific areas like education, infrastructure and technology, Republicans insisted that “investment” was just another name for spending that the nation can ill afford. A Republican Senator Mitch McConnell stated, “With all due respect to our Democratic friends, any time they want to spend, they call it investment, so I think you will hear the president talk about investing a lot Tuesday night,”.1

• 1. “State of Union Near, Republicans Draw Line on Spending” The New York Times, January 23, 2011 at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/24/us/politics/24union.html