Congressman: Obama 'underestimates the intelligence of the American people'

President Obama "underestimates the intelligence of the American people," one Republican congressman suggested Saturday.

Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) asserted that Obama is taking the country in the "exact opposite" direction of American ideals.

Franks derided the president's healthcare reform plans that will be outlined in a speech to a joint session of Congress this week as an unlikely successful venture to repackage his flagging effort.

"He's got to try to come up with something to repackage it, but I think he underestimates the intelligence of the American people," Franks said during an interview on Fox News.

The conservative Arizona lawmaker further predicted that the effort to greater detail health reform plans would backfire for the president.

"If he truly explains the direction that he wants to go and the direction the Democrats want to go -- that's the last thing he wants to do," Franks said. "Because if the people understand it, they'll hate it even more than they do already."

He derided the administration's policies as taking the country in the wrong direction, describing the use of "czars" within the administration as possibly unconstitutional.

"It seems like the administration is taking us in the exact opposite of the American ideal of freedom and individual responsibility," he said.