Reps. Hoyer, Hensarling focus on need for change after Obama's speech

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) separately expressed a blend of hope and skepticism that President Obama's State of the Union speech could inspire change in an often gridlocked Congress.

"We had a big thing about who you're going to sit with last night," Hoyer said on CNN, referring to the bipartisan seating arrangements shared by much of Congress as a show of unity for the president's speech. "It's not so much who we sit with, it's who we work with" that overcomes partisanship, he said.

"The president urged us to show the patriotism, to work together, not for political ends but for policy objectives," Hoyer said. "I thought that was a powerful end to his speech, asking for bipartisanship. And hopefully we'll adhere to that."

In a separate interview on CNN, Hensarling was less optimistic.

"I'm usually encouraged by what the president says, I'm just usually discouraged by what he does," he said. "I typically agree with 80 percent of what he says, I just disagree with 80 percent of what he does."

Hensarling brought up the Keystone Pipeline project in particular. Obama rejected the project to bring oil sands crude from Alberta to Gulf Coast refineries. 

"The president said he wanted more jobs, he said he wanted more American energy independence. It begs the question, why did he just bury 20,000 shovel-ready American jobs?" Hensarling said. 

"To some extent he acted like he parachuted into town last night; he's been here for three years," he continued. "I would like to believe what the president says, but somehow when it gets down to actual governing, it seems the president is more interested in campaigning."

Hensarling's response echoed, in part, focus groups conducted by Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg in Denver following the speech that found a majority of a small sample of swing voters agreeing that listening to Obama "makes me hopeful." There was weaker agreement when voters were asked whether they believed Obama's speech helped bridge the partisan divide.

"I think those people who have disappointment with Congress are absolutely right," Hoyer said. "Congress is not working. We've seen the partisanship."

American voters' approval rating of Congress as a whole has been dropping for several months, polling at 11 percent in a survey by CNN/ORC International earlier this month.

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