Long-winded State Of The Union Speech

Let's get right into his speech, shall we? First off, he referenced a number of points in our history where our "progress", as he put it, was in doubt. To someone who only pays lip service to Christianity, it probably escapes him that this nation was founded by people who had a much more deep and faithful understanding that we WOULD succeed because of God. God shows Himself gloriously when believers are in situations where, by the world's standards, they should lose hope. This nation has gone to its knees at those times and God responded.

Next, he -- again -- reminds us that he inherited a mess, and just how bad that mess was. Oh, but then he says that's why he ran for office. He next plays at our heartstrings and tells us of all the hurt, angry, bewildered people who don't understand why bad behavior on Wall Street is rewarded -- but says nothing of how the Progressives were also rewarded for their behavior and Obama completely omits sharing with us that the last two budgets under Bush and the Congress were run by Democrats. He told us that the people deserve the Democrats and Republicans to work through their differences. Why, Mr. President? You owned both houses of Congress. Just where do you think the differences were? In the Senate the Republicans could simply not show up, since--until now--you had a super-majority. How unbelievably dishonest to go on painting a picture of Republican obstruction when they didn't even have a dog in the fight.

Okay, so he starts to attack the banks, setting us up for this preposterous tax on banks. First, he acts like he was on OUR side in the bank bailouts. He said he hated it, we hated it, but it had to be done. This, of course, is still debatable. The bottom line is WE tried to tell him NOT to bail everyone out, but the elitist Progressives essentially told us that we are too stupid and they did it anyway. So, now most of the banks, he admits, have paid back the bailout money they received. He doesn't tell you it came back with interest. But he DOES tell you that in order to get the rest back he plans to tax the biggest banks. Guess what, big guy, you're taxing the banks who have already paid us back. To add insult to injury, you've exempted the big businesses you bailed out -- GM, Chrysler, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- from such a tax. By the way, folks, you must understand that the ignition for this mess was squarely in two things: extremely high risk loans pushed out there by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the greed this bred that some of the financial institutions took advantage of. If people like Barney Frank and Chris Dodd had not been unethical we'd have never seen the dangerous loans getting floated out there to this degree. Now, his solution to preventing a future financial crisis was ultimately to again treat banks as too big to fail and guarantee future bailouts. Lovely. How about taking a serious look at how our bankruptcy laws and processes work instead?

Next, he hit the jobs issue, touting the "Recovery Act", aka stimulus, as saving two million jobs. He's got absolutely no real data to back that up. It's like walking up to you and asking,"Hey, are you still employed? If so, then most likely what I did saved your job." Wow, how do you make up logic like that? A nice kicker was that he brought up this window company (one that was given funding to push their "green" windows) that grew because of the stimulus. What he neglects to tell you is that policy director of that company is married to Cathy Zoi, Asst. Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Glenn Beck has done a better job than I could do at shedding light on all the little cronies connected to stimulus and the Obama administration. What angers me most is that he said that jobs must be the number one objective this year. Why wasn't it the number one objective last year? Huh? Instead of socialized health care? Disingenuous. Ultimately, though, this stimulus bill was an utter waste of taxpayer money, with nothing long-lasting to show for it. Again, his words are pointed to help us realize we just don't get it and that he was right.

Speaking of that vein, on to health care. After all the town hall meetings, all the TEA parties, the phone calls and marches and three stunning defeats in off-elections, it's HE who doesn't get it. He literally looked down his nose at us and said he's pushing through. Do I need to remind you how many times he said the whole health care work would be transparent? Do I need to remind you of all the backroom deals made between hold-out Democrats, valued in the billions of dollars, to states like Lousiana and Nebraska? All for something that will ultimately hand more control of health care and related decisions to government and away from you and your doctor, all the while artificially lowering prices (making it no longer profitable for physicians or hospitals, etc., to stay in business) and strapping businesses --and you, if you refuse to purchase insurance--with various taxes and surcharges.

Okay, he also wants to freeze spending. Gee, that sounds nice. Well, until you realize that, first, he attacked John McCain during the campaign for suggesting the same thing. Oh, but then you realize all the areas of spending that he wants to exempt from the freeze. Oh, yes, and it's really not so much of a freeze as it is a limit on increasing spending in the areas affected. And, naturally, he just pushed super-increases to those areas anyway, so that should be enough to run on until the freeze is over. One last thing...the freeze wouldn't be in effect until after the mid-term elections. Convenient, isn't it?

How about this, Mr. President...pull back all the unspent TARP and stimulus money and cut our deficit that way? Instead of throwing more money at Education, Clean Jobs (notice they're not "green jobs"?) and the like, why not do things that actually remove the shackles from businesses and help them to grow so that tax revenues grow, too? Hmm? Do you folks realize that, roughly, the cost of the various entitlement programs the federal government funds (with our tax dollars) is around $43 trillion? Yes, trillion, not billion.

Obama went on to talk about how robustly he was pushing his agenda. He asked how long should America put its future on hold. What a trite question. Mr. President, how long would you like to submerge America in debt to realize your vision of America's future? Apparently, forever, because with all the things he wants to do, plus the staggering deficit HE has been responsible for since he took office, no economic wiz can foresee us actually paying off this debt.

Here was an amazing bit. He established a goal for America to double its exports over the next five years. Really? Okay, I'll bite. If you seriously looked at all the goods we export, to whom, exactly, would you sell twice as much of it? I know this issue is complicated, but let me throw just a couple of simple logic pieces at you. If we make similar goods as another nation, say, China (who owns most of our debt, by the way), whose goods would you buy given that China's cost of production is significantly less than ours? I mean, really, the unions have such a hold on our industry and our government (believe me, I know because I deal with their issues a lot), how do you suppose our large scale businesses could ever compete in a toe-to-toe export competition with countries whose labor costs are so low? Then there's the whole supply/demand thing. We're not going to just start pumping out twice as many goods HOPING someone will buy them.

Next was universal college. How about that? No one can deny there's value in a college education. In the spirit of full disclosure, I had two years of college---that I paid for myself after high school---and never finished. It has not hindered my success because I refused to let it. I can easily hold my own in a myriad of topics because I found ways to acquire the knowledge even if I don't have a sheepskin to reflect it. That said, what Obama has proposed is that graduates would pay no more than 10 percent of their income toward repaying student loans and that if they're not paid off in 20 years the debt will be forgiven. Wow, your tax dollars again, folks.

He mentioned he plans to go through the budget "line by line" and eliminate programs we can't afford and that don't work. How about sticking to your promise to stop earmarks, which we can't afford and don't work? Instead, you've signed bill after bill with thousands of earmarks worth billions of dollars.

He said we face a deficit of trust. What he refuses to acknowledge is that his administration is responsible for this deficit, too.

I could go on, and might if another point of his speech rises to attention over the next few days. But here's what his speech boiled down to. Screw You, America. He likes his agenda, will press it however he can, and we, the public, are just to dim to understand what he's doing and why it's better for us. He can't possibly conceive of a world where he's the one who doesn't get it.