State of Confusion

During the Presidents State of the Union Speech I was repeatedly overcome with the urge to look out of the window to make sure I was not living in some kind of a third world Banana Republic. From his Unpresidential Attacks on the courts and the private sector, to his condescending lecture of congress, to his obviously insincere attempt to praise the nations history and the resilience of it’s people. The President painted a picture of a country in dire straits. While it is true that our economy is stagnant, this country has made its way through far more tumultuous times, despite the assertions of our present executive.

The President seems to be becoming evermore detached from reality. Speaking of the recent supreme court decision regarding campaign financing Obama would do well to take a refresher course in American government, the executive is not superior to the other branches, the congress and the courts do not answer to him, this attempt to intimidate the court could very well backfire severely.

He credited the stimulus pkg with keeping two million people on the job. (He interestingly left out his trade mark phrase “created or saved”) but these numbers cannot be verified and the congressional budget office has said repeatedly that it is impossible to determine how many jobs would have existed without the stimulus. Fiscally the president seemed to be grasping at straws, calling for more aid to middle class families and at the same time calling for a freeze on discretionary spending. A spending freeze may sound good but it is important to remember that the agencies that would be affected have already seen a baseline budget increase under Obama. Even if the President can get congress to go along with such a freeze it would only amount to 1% of the deficit. If the President really wanted to get serious about the long-term fiscal health of the nation he would look at beginning a gradual rollback of Medicare, Medicaid & Social Security, these massive unfunded entitlements are sinking the fiscal ship, the president however is ideologically opposed to facing this reality.

Instead of using this address to reach out to the American people, the President seemed more disconnected, hunkering down behind his unpopular agenda instead of acknowledging the citizenries rejection of it. In the end Obama’s address was not an attempt too sure up the electorate; he wasn’t even speaking to them, it was an effort to convince congress to resume their commitment to the political death march he is leading.

Anthony D Dolpies