U.S. Senator Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., listened to President Obama’s State of the Union Address Tuesday and Enzi heard a president who, “acts like he leads a country that has a lot of money.”

“We’re in the midst of a financial crisis in this country and it’s getting worse. We all need to face that fact. Trotting out a long laundry list every year of what more the government is going to do for people won’t work. We need to take care of the successful programs we already have,” Enzi said. “He said we should enact Simpson-Bowles deficit reforms. However, he hasn’t supported actual legislation containing the unpopular, but necessary spending cuts called for in those reforms. His budgets haven’t reflected that we must bring down the deficit. Instead of cutting it in half as the president claimed, it’s risen to nearly $1 trillion per year. Now he’s proposing many more new federal programs that we all know would cost billions more in new borrowing. He can name his own price in a speech, but the reality is a different price. A speech won’t become law. We need details to even write a bill.”

Enzi said we can overcome our financial problems with the help of real legislation done in a way that is open, inclusive, productive and not “deal making.”

“My hope is that the majority in the Senate settles down, stops deal making and starts legislating,” Enzi said. “Let’s pass a budget and work appropriations bills through the committee process. Then we won’t be moving from crisis to crisis. I can, have and will work with those seeking common ground in the committees on which I serve. It’s my 80 percent rule- finding and locking on to areas of agreement, but it doesn’t mean anyone has to compromise. We just need to put actual bills through these committees. We need all the members to be involved and do the work their constituents sent them here to do. I hope more people take up this call.”