President Barack Obama sounded like he was running for a third term in his remarks during the State of the Union Address, said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
"My first thought was it sounded like he was running for a third term," he said in a joint interview aired Sunday with House Speaker John Boehner with
CBS' "60 Minutes."
Obama had said during his address, "I have no more campaigns to run. I know because I won both of them."
McConnell said that the president's signal that he intended to forge ahead with his policy agenda during the final years of his administration indicated he was tone deaf to the drubbing his party faced at the ballot box in November.
"He seemed to have completely forgotten or chose to ignore the election last November," McConnell said. "He was looking out at an audience that had 80 more Republicans than in his first State of the Union."
Boehner said he was disappointed that Obama missed an opportunity to extend an "olive branch" to the new Republican majority during his speech.
"You know, the president could have, with the State of the Union, just put out an olive branch, could've taken just a little bit different tone that would've indicated to us that there's some interest in working with us," Boehner said. "I can tell you, we're interested in working with him."
When asked about the president's proposal to increase the childcare tax credit, Boehner indicated he would be open to the idea but that the issue needed to be discussed in the context of budget discussions.
"We're all for helping working-class families around America," Boehner said. "I think we'll take a look at this when he sends his budget up, something that could be looked at in the overall context of simplifying our tax code and bringing rates down for everyone."
The two leaders acknowledged that economic indicators were positive under Obama, but said that most of the benefits have gone to the top 1 percent of the population and that income inequality was a problem that Republicans are concerned about.
They blamed the president's policies for exacerbating the income gap, specifically through increases in regulation and Obamacare.
Boehner and McConnell, however, shot down a number of the president's proposals. On a proposal to increase taxes on the wealthy: "Dead. Real dead," Boehner said.
McConnell also poured cold water over the president's proposal for taxpayer-funded free community colleges.
"We added more debt during the Obama years than all the presidents from George Washington down to George Bush," McConnell said. "And giving away free tuition strikes me as something we can't afford."
Republicans also plan to challenge Obama on immigration.
"(The president) did exactly what he said he didn't have the authority to do," McConnell said.