A key portion of Sen. Harry Reid's response to the State of the Union address last night:

"Too many of the President's economic policies have left Americans and American companies struggling. And after we worked so hard to eliminate the deficit, his policies have added trillions to the debt — in effect, a “birth tax” of $36,000 on every child that is born.

We Democrats have a different vision: Spurring research and development in new technologies to help create the jobs of the future. Rolling up our sleeves and fighting for today's jobs by ending the special tax breaks that encourage big corporations to ship jobs overseas. A trade policy that enforces the rules of the road so that we play to win in the global marketplace instead of sitting by and getting played for fools."

These responses always come off as too phony and rehearsed, but it was refreshing to hear Reid go after the president's failure to manage the federal budget and trade.