Washington, D.C. – Representative David Price (NC-04) released the following statement this evening after President Barack Obama delivered his 2012 State of the Union Address.

"Tonight, President Obama reiterated that he will fight for what's right: the promise of America should be for all, not just the wealthy few. For the past three years, he has worked with Democrats in Congress, he has fought to reform health care, rein in Wall Street, expand access to higher education, and most important of all, start a recovery that has added 3.2 million private sector jobs over the last 22 months. I have been proud to stand with him.

"But we must do more. We are in a make or break moment for our middle class, and those trying to reach it. President Obama's blueprint to restore and revitalize our middle class—focused on promoting education, research, and clean energy and developing innovative businesses and manufacturing here at home—is the right one. I also applaud the President's call for a return to tax fairness for working Americans. Warren Buffett's Secretary, Debbie Bosanek, was in attendance tonight. She should not pay a greater percentage of her income in taxes than her billionaire boss. Nor should seniors, or students, or families working hard to get by pay a greater percentage than those who earn more than a million dollars a year.

"Our middle class is the engine of our nation's economic growth, but the top one percent now control more wealth than the bottom 90 percent. This inequality is neither accidental nor inevitable–it is the result of a deliberate policy agenda pursued by Republican administrations and Republicans in Congress that views tax cuts for the wealthy as more important than investments in public education, research, infrastructure and innovation. This is not the way America is supposed to work. I will fight alongside the President to revitalize our middle class. We must again employ government as an instrument of our common purpose if we are to restore an economy that rewards hard work and responsibility.

"Going forward, I am hopeful that Democrats and Republicans in Congress will come together in good faith to work with the President, beginning with a year-long extension of the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits. If House Republicans continue to stand in his way and insist on returning to the same policies that brought about the economic crisis, they will have to explain their obstructionism to the American people."

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