A paraphrased version of the Republican response to the State of the Union address, delivered by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers:
Like all Americans, we Republicans want poor people to move up to the middle class. But we don't think the government can help to make that happen. Instead, we believe that poor people need to hear a smiling lecture about how important it is to work hard (since we think you're pretty lazy but most of us wouldn't say that out loud).
To encourage you to pull harder on your magical bootstraps, the person delivering the lecture will be a member of Congress who used to work at McDonald's. She will imply that the fact that 0.0001% of fast food employees can someday make it to the halls of power cancels out the fact that 99% of them will remain trapped in poverty (they must not be trying hard enough to achieve their dreams). As we all know, it is possible to pay for a college degree and one's living expenses on a minimum wage salary (wait, this is still the 1950s, right?)
We also think it's important for poor people to pray to God so that America can become a land of economic opportunity for all. As for policy proposals, we offer none, other than cutting taxes even more. The combination of prayer and tax cuts will cause the Invisible Hand of the free market to make enough well-paying jobs miraculously appear for everyone (please ignore the fact that people have already been praying a lot and the U.S. government has been repeatedly cutting taxes for years, but somehow the jobs didn't appear yet).
In conclusion, America is the greatest country on earth. Let us smilingly reminisce about a time when it actually was, pretending we are still living in that time today, rather than changing government policy back to the way it was at that time (i.e. the New Deal and the Great Society) which made such a time possible.
Patronizingly,
The Republican Party