The president’s speech last night wore a flag pin. But to paraphrase the president on another occasion, safeguarding the American experiment takes more than expressions of patriotism. President Obama made a Reaganesque joke about the ham-handedness of government. But he nonetheless seems oblivious, quite unlike Reagan, to the dangers that unconstrained government poses to the American future.
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He says that the government cannot pick the industries of the future — moments before explaining how it is going to create jobs in renewable energy. His proposal to improve the nation’s infrastructure centers on the faddish boondoggle of high-speed rail, which is wholly unsuitable for a country with our population density. He favors increased subsidies for higher education that are more likely to increase college tuitions than to prepare our work force for the challenges of tomorrow. His plan for Social Security must consist entirely of tax increases, since he has ruled out every other expedient. He is unwilling to rethink a health-care plan that is likely to add to the country’s economic burdens: increasing insurance premiums, reducing wages, raising taxes, and adding to the national debt. Obama’s economic strategy is a high-speed train to nowhere.
Every once in a long while the president made a worthwhile, though usually vague, proposal. He expressed interest in cutting the corporate tax rate while simplifying the corporate tax code: a reform that has become more pressing with each year as other countries have cut their rates. Even vaguer was his call for reforming the rest of the tax code. Regarding these promises the Republican posture should be to distrust and verify.
“We do big things,” President Obama said. Too bad that what his administration mostly does is big government.
I must admit, I was rather surprised to hear Obama mention Tort Reform. Let us see how far that "suggestion" goes. I'm guessing, given Obama's history of being much talk, little successful action, Tort Reform under the Obama Administration will go as far as the San Fransisco Giants (Yes, Giants) went on the road to the Super Bowl.
Distrust and verify is an apt guideline for dealing with this Administration. We chose not to endure this presentation, and the commentary confirms the wisdom of our choice.
The man is not even an accomplished liar, despite his persistence in practicing the art.
There is nothing inherently wrong with high-speed rail, but there is a lot wrong with the way the administration is choosing to do it. Instead of actually getting something built and operational, almost all the money thus far has gone to studies, environmental reviews, and other things of the sort that would never be needed in the first place if it weren't for overly burdensome rules and regulations.
High-speed rail can work in certain parts of the country (many areas have population density on the same order as what France has), but it will never be a complete nationwide network serving every community, in fact it doesn't achieve that anywhere at all in the world (nor does scheduled commercial air service).
In any case, the United States made a decision decades ago to kill passenger rail service in this country. That effort to destroy passenger rail didn't quite succeed, but it very nearly has, and maybe it would be kinder just to let it die and admit the US does not have the ability to make the trains run on time... or at all.
Obama's said his political hero is Reagan, & you can sure hear it loud & clear in this SOTU: tax relief & high-tech subsidies for business, cutbacks & austerity for everyone else.
Urging Congress to stop handing out the pork to Big Oil = COMEDY GOLD. Ditto the pledge to close corporate tax loopholes (which for some mysterious reason got by far the weakest applause of the night).
Yeah, Big Business is so oppressed under Obama's cruel socialist regime that they're now making record-breaking profits, even more than the best years they had under Bush ... & the ongoing manifold savings from Healthcare Reform will make them even bigger in years to come. No wonder the Chamber Of Commerce hates him so much!
Not so funny: across-the-board austerity in a bad economy? Ask Herbert Hoover how well that cunning plan works out.
It would have taken a longer editorial, but I think that what's missing is the context: in light of his previous words and ESPECIALLY his actions and personal history, the Reaganesque flourishes can be seen only as a lie.
The willingness to take this speech on its own, outside of that context, hinders the necessary conversation about this man's stealth radicalism. It subsequently makes it easier for him to deceive the inattentive and the willfully ignorant.
Every premise stated in the second paragraph of this article is questionable at best. Hardly an objective look at matters. ...but I'm sure it fires up "your base" even if it is shallow.
Were the Presidents pants really on fire last night?
No Representative actually yelled out "you lie!" yesterday, and no member of the Supreme Court exclaimed "that's not true", but his statement about ObamaCare makes me wonder.
"Now, I’ve heard rumors that a few of you have some concerns about the new health care law..."
For anyone curious as to whether Obama "gets it" and has run to the center, re-read that statement.
A summer of town hall meetings, over half the country
polling they want repeal or changes to ObamaCare, the rise of Tea Party candidates, a "shellacking" in
Nov., passage of repeal in the House, enough
pressure and support swelling to most likely bring a
repeal vote in the Senate, dozens of compliance
waivers issued, policies being outright discontinued by
insurers...
Yet these are only "rumors" of dissatisfaction from a "few"?
To at least the Republican half of those cozy couples
at this speech, the President obviously was not talking to you. Rather he was speaking to your dates. Specifically to those three Dems who voted for repeal
in the House, and ESPECIALLY to that handful of Senate Dems who could pass it there as well.
They certainly qualify as a "few" that he's been hearing "rumors" about. Obama is no Centrist. He is a true Liberal and has clearly signaled he will continue to advance the Liberal agenda. If you thought we saw pressure and deals made in the 111th Congress about ObamaCare - you ain't seen nothin' yet!
How many policies can the political class just get plain wrong?
Energy and power are the keys to our future. But the key to this is the concept of energy density--the number of calories generated for work per unit of input. Biofuels, solar, and wind energy are extremely inefficient. They are pre-19th century technologies. Fossil fuels supplanted them because they are more efficient in terms of energy density. Obama and the Democrats are "Progressives" who would send us back to a poorer past. What will supplant fossil fuels will be nuclear energy, and specifically fusion and battery technologies that will come as a result of nanotechnology. The "Progressives" want to sell the idea of sustainability, but there is nothing that is sustainable. It is simple thermodynamics. Progressives are idiots who think they are smart, and hence are dangerous.
I'll just mention one item from the speech that clashes with another.
"cut business taxes", and stop subsidies to (that cursed) BIG OIL. The attack on big oil occured within about 5 minutes of the speech.
How do these fit? My guess is that his admin will do what it does, pick winners and losers. Perhaps there aren't enough union workers in the oil industry? Hmmm..
. . . Sputnik moment, it still tickles me. The Teleprompter of the United States of America actually prompted the phrase "Sputnik Moment".
It's times like these when I must believe in Providence regarding Presidential elections. Had Barack Hussein Obama been more of a true democrat centrist, had he been reared in schools of thought other than Saul Alinsky and Marx, had he been bent toward forming a more perfect Union in the founding sense, rather than the wholesale remaking of America, had he been smarter and patient, rather than just calculating; had he been mature rather than just fresh, he could have waged a Presidential war of attrition against conservatism that would have neutered the movement for the next decade and perhaps beyond.
My ardent hope is that dividends of this man as President will continue for conservatism for years to come.
Obama will say whatever he needs to in order to keep himself in office and continue his "transformation" of the USA. I didn't watch the speech--I've gotten to the point that I can't watch the President of the United States without getting angry and disheartened. 2012 can't come soon enough.
@Mike B--you're right about trusting the Dems less than the Communists. At least the Communists would look you in the eye and tell you they were going to rob and enslave you--it was their goal! The Dems do this while telling you the exact opposite--and they will look you in the face the entire time. Distrust is the only proper reaction. If you hold out a hand to the Left, you will pull back a stump.
