In his Wall Street Journal column today, Karl Rove compares President Obama's State of the Union address -- “a paean to liberal activism”-- to Rep. Paul Ryan's response, which “drew deeply from the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution to defend limited government.” Rove concludes that the two speeches offered “competing visions of the country,” but I think he heard a different State of the Union speech than I did.

Rove: Obama said “sunny days are ahead if only government continues its spending binge.” From Rove's January 27 Wall Street Journal column, “Obama vs. Ryan: The Choice Is Clear”:

President Barack Obama's State of the Union address and Rep. Paul Ryan's Republican response offer competing visions of the country.

For Mr. Obama, it is business as usual. Sunny days are ahead if only government continues its spending binge. A year ago the euphemism was “stimulus.” Now it is “investment.” Most of his hour-long speech was a paean to liberal activism, as the president called for redoubling outlays on high-speed rail and “countless” green energy jobs.

Obama: “We have to confront the fact that our government spends more than it takes in. That is not sustainable.” From Obama's January 25 State of the Union speech:

OBAMA: We are living with a legacy of deficit spending that began almost a decade ago. And in the wake of the financial crisis, some of that was necessary to keep credit flowing, save jobs, and put money in people's pockets.

But now that the worst of the recession is over, we have to confront the fact that our government spends more than it takes in. That is not sustainable. Every day, families sacrifice to live within their means. They deserve a government that does the same.

Rove: Paul Ryan “understands that the nation's fiscal imbalance cannot be repaired just by cutting nondefense discretionary spending.” From Rove's column:

Mr. Ryan understands that the nation's fiscal imbalance cannot be repaired just by cutting nondefense discretionary spending (which makes up only $666 billion of this year's $3.5 trillion federal budget). More than $2 trillion of the budget consists of mandatory spending, and he knows that reforming these programs, especially Medicare, is the only path to fiscal sanity and economic growth. Otherwise America will face a crushing debt and huge tax increases.

Obama: “We have to stop pretending that cutting this kind of spending alone will be enough. It won't.” From Obama's speech:

OBAMA: Now, most of the cuts and savings I've proposed only address annual domestic spending, which represents a little more than 12 percent of our budget. To make further progress, we have to stop pretending that cutting this kind of spending alone will be enough. It won't. (Applause.)

The bipartisan fiscal commission I created last year made this crystal clear. I don't agree with all their proposals, but they made important progress. And their conclusion is that the only way to tackle our deficit is to cut excessive spending wherever we find it -- in domestic spending, defense spending, health care spending, and spending through tax breaks and loopholes. (Applause.)

This means further reducing health care costs, including programs like Medicare and Medicaid, which are the single biggest contributor to our long-term deficit.

Rove: Obama said we're “poised for progress” but millions of Americans are still unemployed. From Rove's column:

Tuesday, Mr. Obama proclaimed the country was “poised for progress.” In some anemic ways it is. But 142 million Americans were employed the day before Mr. Obama took office and 139 million are today.

Obama: We're “poised for progress” but need to do more about jobs. From Obama's speech:

OBAMA: We are poised for progress. Two years after the worst recession most of us have ever known, the stock market has come roaring back. Corporate profits are up. The economy is growing again.

But we have never measured progress by these yardsticks alone. We measure progress by the success of our people. By the jobs they can find and the quality of life those jobs offer. By the prospects of a small business owner who dreams of turning a good idea into a thriving enterprise. By the opportunities for a better life that we pass on to our children.

That's the project the American people want us to work on. Together. (Applause.)

We did that in December. Thanks to the tax cuts we passed, Americans' paychecks are a little bigger today. Every business can write off the full cost of new investments that they make this year. And these steps, taken by Democrats and Republicans, will grow the economy and add to the more than one million private sector jobs created last year.

But we have to do more.