“President Obama pledged on Tuesday night to use government power to balance the scale between America’s rich and the rest of the public, seeking to present an election-year choice between his continued leadership toward an economy ‘built to last’ and a Republican argument that the country would benefit from less federal intervention.”

“‘On these evenings, Presidents naturally seek to find the sunny side of our national condition,’ Daniels said. ‘But when President Obama claims that the state of our union is anything but grave, he must know in his heart that this is not true.’…

“‘The mortal enemies of Social Security and Medicare are those who, in contempt of the plain arithmetic, continue to mislead Americans that we should change nothing,’ Daniels said.”

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy