Those of you who heard the president's State of the Union address know that it was an appeal to Republicans to work with Democrats and vice versa. It was an appeal to get the economy and jobs moving. I thought it was a good speech and well delivered as that is what the president does best. He is as good a communicator as was Ronald Reagan.

The reactions from Republicans was predictable. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, giving the formal Republican response to the speech, said, “President Barack Obama has resorted to extremism with stifling, anti-growth policies to divide Americans, not unite them.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Obama's speech offered common-sense solutions that would create jobs and put our country on a path to economic fairness. He said the president's recommendations will narrow the economic inequities in the U.S., make America a leader in clean energy and revive manufacturing.

“I am optimistic that this year Republicans will turn away from the Tea Party and listen to the American people instead,” Democrat Reid said. He also said he was calling on Congress to work together this year.

In short, nothing has changed, nor will it until the election is over, and then we will see how it goes.

David Lawder, a reporter for Reuters News Service, recently published a piece titled “House Republicans Budget to Seek Medicare Reforms.”

It pretty much cited House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan's points of view as it relates to Medicare reform. Republican Ryan, of Wisconsin, said the House Republican budget resolution will contain reforms to Medicare such as providing subsidies to help recipients pay for private insurance based on wealth and medical needs.

Lawder went on to report, “The Wisconsin congressman caused an uproar last year by proposing a plan effectively to privatize Medicare by turning a popular $525 billion fee-for-service program into a system of vouchers to be used by recipients to buy private insurance. The plan was enough to rattle elderly voters and was cited as a key factor in the defeat of a Republican candidate in a normally conservative New York state congressional district last year.”

Republicans like Ryan need to get the message loud and clear that seniors have worked hard all our lives and paid dearly toward these benefits. Now, in the last years of our lives we are being vilified as those greedy seniors who are causing all the deficit problems and so Congress needs to cut our benefits so we can lower their budget costs.

Well, Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit. And as for Medicare or Medicaid — if it needs fixing, fix it, but don't blame everything on seniors. President Bill Clinton managed to take care of business and have a balanced budget as well as leaving President George W. Bush with millions of excess dollars. What happened to it? Oh yes, we had another war that seniors had no say about, but are paying for in the trillions of dollars.

In the long run we need a unified America that cares more about our country and its citizens than some politicians who only care about their own re-election and that their party occupies the White House. Don't hold your breath. Stay tuned.

• Janice Ayres is president of Nevada Senior Corps Association.