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“No” seems to be all anyone wants to say in this town anymore. In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Obama enumerated policies that he opposed, from rolling back Wall Street regulations to exempting more businesses from their obligation to provide health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. To drive home his displeasure with the Republican agenda, the White House also issued two new veto threats in the hours before the president spoke — this time for bills that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy and accelerate approval of natural gas pipeline construction. For their part, Republicans immediately rejected most of the proposals that were central to Mr. Obama’s address, saying he was obviously not serious about working with them to pass consequential bipartisan legislation. (Peters and Huetteman, 1/20)

Ernst pledged that the new GOP majority would reform Congress “to make it function again” and would pass “serious job-creation ideas,” naming the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline as a top priority. She also took a shot at Obama’s health-care law, saying that it was part of a “stale mind-set” and that Republicans would “keep fighting to repeal and replace” it. (Costa, 1/20)

Republicans vowed to repeal and replace ObamaCare following President Obama's State of the Union address, a speech that repeatedly touted the successes of the healthcare law. Newly elected Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) criticized the reform law for canceling healthcare plans and claimed it has raised premiums and "hurt … hardworking families." (Viebeck, 1/20)