WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says it’s time to turn the page after years of economic hardship at home and wars overseas. But Republicans in charge of Congress say the voters already took care of that last November — and they’re the proof.

“Much of what he did tonight … new taxes, new spending is sort of the same old thing that we’ve heard over the last six years,” said newly installed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, not long after the president wrapped up a State of the Union speech studded with veto threats and challenges to newly empowered congressional Republicans.

“What I had hoped was the president was going to focus on areas of possible agreement. There are a few: trade, tax reform, infrastructure,” added McConnell, who was on the receiving end of a presidential barb about climate change.

House Speaker John Boehner, McConnell’s partner atop the leadership of the new, Republican-controlled Congress, agreed. “Finding common ground is what the American people sent us here to do, but you wouldn’t know it from the president’s speech tonight,” he said.

The two Republican leaders spoke after Obama declared the “shadow of crisis has passed,” with the economy growing and joblessness falling. He unfurled an agenda on taxes, spending, social programs, energy and foreign policy notably at odds with Republican priorities, although he ended with a plea for the two parties to “debate without demonizing one another” and find compromise where possible.