WASHINGTON – House Speaker John Boehner today panned as “pathetic” the 2012 agenda President Obama plans to roll out Tuesday in the State of the Union Address.
Boehner (R-Ohio) said he already “read a lot about what the president is going to talk about Tuesday night and it sounds to me like the same old policies we’ve been seeing: more spending, higher taxes, more regulations — the same policies that haven’t helped our economy. They’ve made it worse.”
“If that’s what the president is going to talk about Tuesday night, I think it’s pathetic,” the speaker said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“It’s time to go in a new direction,” Boehner said. “We need to end the regulatory nightmare that’s coming out of Washington and serving as a wet blanket over our economy.”
In a preview of the speech, Obama said in a video message to supporters that he will lay out an economic blueprint that’s “built to last” for middle-class Americans.
Obama’s re-election campaign distributed the video online yesterday, just hours ahead of the South Carolina primary where Republican candidates vied for the nomination to challenge him in November.
The prime-time speech – in which Obama will launch his re-election bid and begin making the argument for a second term — will focus on four themes: manufacturing, energy, education and what Obama calls “a return to American values.”
The president also signaled that he will continue to push the country’s class-warfare buttons.
“We can go in two directions,” said Obama. “One is toward less opportunity and less fairness. Or we can fight for where I think we need to go: building an economy that works for everyone, not just a wealthy few.”
Obama has cast the 2012 election as a choice between Republicans, who he says protects the rich and leave middle-class Americans “on your own,” and Democrats who he says will make sure everyone gets an even break.
Obama’s address to the nation will focus almost exclusively on the economy, the top issue in the 2012 election. He will push for Congress to act on languishing elements of his jobs plan, such as a yearlong extension of the payroll-tax cut that is set to expire Feb. 29.
He is expected to again propose higher taxes on the rick, as well as outline new plans to make college more affordable and fix the housing crisis.
None of Obama’s proposals are expected to go anywhere during this election year and in a bitterly divided Congress. But that plays into Obama’s plan to run against a “do-nothing Congress.”
smiller@nypost.com