NASHVILLE, TN – Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Chris Devaney issued the following statement after President Obama’s State of the Union address:

“Tonight, we heard more of the same from a President who has failed time and again to make good on his promises. President Obama has now been in office for more than a year and in that time Tennesseans have suffered the loss of nearly 90,000 jobs resulting in a statewide unemployment rate of almost 11 percent. Instead of working on real solutions that will help put people back to work, this Democrat Congress and Administration have used the economic downturn as an excuse to blow billions of taxpayer dollars on fiscally reckless policies that are burying our kids and grandkids under mountains of debt.

“Middle-class families are looking for more than empty promises. They want to go back to work. And they want the Democrats who run Washington to stop pursuing a big government, big spending agenda that includes a government takeover of health care, ’stimulus’ bills, a new national energy tax and taxpayer-funded bailouts. The recent elections in Massachusetts, Virginia, and New Jersey have shown that voters aren’t buying this Administration’s rhetoric, and in November I think we’ll see that Tennessee voters aren’t buying it either.”