GOP says its ready to counter Obama's agenda for 2014

WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- Republicans said Saturday that President Obama has his agenda for the new year and the GOP has its own plans.

The weekly GOP media address announced a "year of action" that would blunt any move the Obama administration might make to raise taxes and government spending.

"If all he has to offer is more of the same, or if he refuses to acknowledge that his own policies have failed to work -- the president is simply doing what many failed leaders have done before him: trying to set one group of Americans against another group of Americans," said Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., who delivered the address.

"President Obama can join us to grow the nation's economy and the nation's jobs," Blunt added, "or he can continue pushing for more regulations, more taxes, higher utility bills, and healthcare turmoil."

ABC News Saturday's address appeared to be a preemptive strike against the initiatives Obama may pitch to the nation in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday.

Blunt portrayed Obama's agenda as one that inflicts pain on lower-income Americans and the unemployed because it supposedly stifles job creation.

Republicans, Blunt said, would in turn press for "common sense" steps to improve the economy including rolling back various business regulations and increasing energy production in the United States.