State of the Union

I sat through the entire boring State of the Union Address and found it to be just about what I expected. There was nothing new, just more of the same big government blather, but with one difference. Three years ago there was all the excitement about Hope and Change. Tonight there was no mention of it, and nothing hopeful about the speech.

But before I get into that, let me share something from The O'Reilly Factor, which I watched just before the speech. O'Reilley was interviewing Bob Bechel. Bechel, as you may know, was the campaign manager for the biggest loser in presidential history, Walter Mondale. He had his head in the sand in 1984, and he's still got it there. He first claimed that Obama had created 4 million jobs, a figure even the president isn't claiming, but when he was asked if he had any fear about the 16 trillion dollar debt and leaving the burden to generations to come, his answer showed just how out of touch liberals are. He said it was nothing to worry about, that the dollar would never be devalued, and then asked, "Has the deficit affected you?"

Bechel, of course, makes well over a million a year, so he could be taxed at 30 or 40% and not even feel it. O'Reilly put him in his place then and said, "That's fine for you. What about the poor people who have no jobs, can't afford the high gasoline prices, and are struggling to survive?" Bechel doesn't see these people's needs and doesn't care. He's a left wing, self-centered, self-serving mongrel who only cares about what benefits him right now. My guess is he typifies most liberals. And they call the 80's the Decade of Greed. Nobody is more out of touch than these people, and the president's speech only serves to prove that true.

Obama began and ended his State of the Union praising our troops, their sacrifice and their ability to work together, and used it as a bully pulpit to encourage the country. "Imagine what we could accomplish if we work together," he said. Of course, he made sure we knew he had brought the troops home from Iraq and was starting a draw down in Afghanistan. He hyped the killing of bin-Laden as an example of his astute foreign policy, just as I said he would. He went through some of the details of the mission and said the flag that Seal Team 6 had carried on the mission and had each autographed for the president was his most cherished possession.

He claimed that America is again respected around the world. I'd like to hear Donald Trump's response to that. He just said a few days ago that Obama has made us the laughing stock of the world.

The theme of his speech was fairness; fair shot, fair play, and shared responsibility. Class warfare was the goal as he repeated again that it's not fair for the top 2% to be paying a lower tax rate than everybody else. He used Warren Buffet's claim that he paid less taxes than his secretary as his cause celebre.

Buffet, of course, just like Mitt Romney, makes most of his money from investments. Investments are taxed at 15%, lower than normal income tax, because investments are what provide capital for corporations to hire more workers, and there is a certain amount of risk involved for the investor. If you raise the investment earnings tax, you wind up with less investments, and companies with less capital and fewer job openings to hire people to produce their products. Of course, reality is the inconvenient fact that liberals choose to ignore.

On the economy he said we had to gain control of our own energy, and touted solar energy, (which he has authorized billions in loans too, but which have completely failed, which he completely failed to mention), and natural gas as a source of clean energy, but said nothing about the Keystone pipeline that he just canceled. He talked about bringing jobs back from overseas and the tax breaks he would give companies who moved their manufacturing plants back home, but said nothing of the overburden of taxes and regulations, and the belligerence of unions that forced them to leave in the first place.

He spoke of the home mortgage crisis and how there needs to be more regulations to keep large banks in line so this never happens again, but said nothing of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac which he bailed out, or of the Dodd/Frank bill that caused the mess in the first place. Then he ordered the Attorney-General, Eric Holder, to investigate the crisis. Yeah, I can just see a whole lot getting done with that investigation.

He explained that in the six months before he took office 4 million jobs were lost (still blaming Bush), and 4 million more were lost in his first six months in office (due to Bush), but that since 2010 3 million new jobs had been created. It was, he said, the most jobs created in a two year period since 1999. He said nothing about the unemployment rate being at 8.6%, or the fact that there are still 1.5 or 2 million more people out of work than when he started. He did say that he had agreed to cut the debt by 2 trillion dollars over the next six years, but said nothing of the 1.2 trillion he wants to add to the debt in the next year.

He claimed that oil production in the US is at an eight year high, while last year we imported the least foreign oil in the last 16 years. He said his administration had opened up millions of new acres for drilling (those acres on BLM land had already been tested and rejected as non-productive by oil companies) and that he was ordering the opening of 75% of off shore drilling areas to search for more there (even though a judge had ordered him to allow drilling to go on in the Gulf over a year ago, he's just now got around to it).

On education he said that he had raised the standards for the first time in a generation. (I seem to remember Clinton's "Goals 2000" and George W. Bush's "No Child Left Behind" supposedly did something like that around 1998 and 2001.) He wants a system that rewards the best teachers, gets rid of the worst, and allows teachers flexibility to teach, not just cram for the exam. Interesting. That's what we've all wanted for years, but Obama's union friends always threatening to go on strike for more benefits have made it impossible.

He proposed that every State pass laws requiring students to graduate from high school or stay in school at least until they are 18, and then to help subsidize school loans so more kids can go to college. (I think those are issues that are up to the states and none of his business.)

He had a plan to help home owners to save $3,000 by refinancing their homes. I'm not sure, but I think refinancing closing costs are less than that in the private market now and you can probably save a whole lot more than $3,000 without the president's plan. He said there needs to be some regulations to prevent irresponsible behavior in the housing industry and had the chutzpah to declare that his administration had cut more regulations than any other president, and approved fewer regulations than President Bush. In his mind, maybe. The government passed over 3700 regulations restricting businesses just last year alone.

I did agree with one thing he said; he wants to ban insider trading by members of Congress. But then he turned around and chastised Wall Street for getting a free ride and announced there would be "no more bailouts." He conveniently ignored the fact that he's the one who bailed them out amd gave them the free ride.

He got in a hit at the House Speaker, John Boehner, accusing Republicans of holding up the budget bill. Let's see, he overlooked the Super Committee that he appointed to make budget resolutions and came up with nothing, and the fact that he is required by law to submit his own version of the budget by today and failed to do so on time for the third year in a row, and that his late budget proposal last year was rejected by the Senate 99-0.

He stated that our commitment to Israel is iron clad and closer than at anytime in history. If I wasn't so disgusted I'd be laughing. He has been no friend of Netanyahu, and just canceled a military exercise with Israel so as not to provoke the Iranians over the Strait of Hormuz. Now there's how you win friends and influence people; by weakness. He also claimed that his new defense strategy (gutting the military of personnel and using new technology) would make us safer. In a fantasy world maybe.

Near the end of the speech he made the most laughable comments of the evening. First he said, "Tyranny is no match for liberty," which is a corker since he's been the most tyrannical president we've ever had. He said that even though he was a Republican, one of his favorite presidents was Abraham Lincoln, and he quoted Lincoln as having said, "Government should only do for people what they can't do." Yet, Obama, the Food Stamp president, has grown government bigger in his three years than all the other presidents in our history combined.

Obama didn't discuss healthcare or his economic troubles, probably because he can't run on the destructive things he has accomplished, but he did say that anyone saying America is in decline doesn't know what he's talking about. I wonder why he then said we need to trust each other and rebuild our nation together. If we're not in decline, why do we have to rebuild? Well, it sounded good except for one thing; he's the most untrustworthy person in the country.

He called for an amnesty for illegal aliens which is about the worst thing you could do in a recession as deep and as long as this one has been and with unemployment as high as it is. No doubt he's plowing for more voters. While an amnesty would put an even greater strain on social security and medicare, Obama said nothing about fixing the funding problems for those programs.

Obama was elected on the promise to fix the economy. He hasn't done it. Instead we've got unprecedented spending and unemployment has gone up and stayed up for three years. His plan of what Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels calls "trickle down government" isn't working. Big government, as Ronald Reagan said, is not the answer to the problem, it is the problem. The only way to fix it is to privatize the economy, stop punishing corporations and individuals for making a profit, and allow everybody to earn all the wealth they can and use it to create jobs. For all Obama's boasting of creating jobs, most of those are in government which does not create jobs, but only transfers them from the private sector which then has to pay for them as well.

Overall, same ol' same ol' from Ol'bama. No substance, no vision, no plan. The solution to this dismal economy is 1) get big government off the backs of the people who create the jobs, and 2) create a simpler tax code that will get everybody out from under the massive red tape that is a massive waste of time and money.

In other words, throw out Obama and all his leftist minions and get some sort of sanity back in Washington. Vote Republican whoever it is.