Comments on President Obama’s State of the Union Speech
I will say that President Obama is pretty good at this speech stuff. Remember last year when Professor Obama said that the adults are now in charge and we’re going to clean up the mess the kids made? This year had a much different tone. At times he almost sounded humble. Thank you, Massachusetts.
This time he hit right to the heart of what his pollsters and advisers were saying: “It’s the economy, stupid.” He didn’t even get to health care until he was about half way through his speech. But he says he understands what we’re going through and the government is going to save us. Again. He said “we” (I guess that means his administration) prevented another depression. Thanks a lot. I think.
He launched right into the banks and said we’re not going to put up with that sh*t anymore. Not really, but it sure felt like he was mad at them.
All the rest were the usual ornaments that politicians love to decorate the legislative Christmas tree with. This program for small businesses, a tax credit for that, green jobs, “China’s not waiting to revamp its economy … Well I do not accept second-place for the United States of America,” free college stuff, a jobs bill, energy independence, more stimulus, yadda, yadda, yadda.
Actually he did say something good about nuclear power and offshore drilling. “Tough choices,” he said. Fair enough.
Much of what he said was the usual thing that presidents say:
I have never been more hopeful about America’s future than I am tonight. Despite our hardships, our union is strong. We do not give up. We do not quit. We do not allow fear or division to break our spirit. In this new decade, it’s time the American people get a government that matches their decency; that embodies their strength.
He kept calling it Bush’s recession over and over and over. I’ll give him that. But both parties were equally culpable. It just happened to crash on Bush’s watch. But it gets old when he has to keep reminding us that it wasn’t his fault. He has no clue.
So here we are in Year 2 of Obama and we need another jobs bill because the first one didn’t work. Please! These guys never examine their premises.
The almost funny part when he said, dead serious, “[E]ven as health care reform would reduce our deficit, it’s not enough to dig us out of a massive fiscal hole in which we find ourselves.” This is why we’re in trouble. He and the Democrats actually believe this.
He noted that we are headed for massive deficits:
So let me start the discussion of government spending by setting the record straight. At the beginning of the last decade, America had a budget surplus of over $200 billion. By the time I took office, we had a one year deficit of over $1 trillion and projected deficits of $8 trillion over the next decade. Most of this was the result of not paying for two wars, two tax cuts, and an expensive prescription drug program. On top of that, the effects of the recession put a $3 trillion hole in our budget. That was before I walked in the door.
His solution to runaway spending and the financial collapse of Medicare and Social Security? – a bipartisan commission. This is not good. Until they understand that they are the problem the result will be massive tax increases because politicians can’t cut spending. Besides, it’s not his fault.
He did get to the point that he will pull out of Iraq by August. I have my doubts that it will happen, but it’s fine with me: let’s go home. Most foreign policy issues were an afterthought.
The ending of the speech was was pretty good. It was meaningless but he says meaningless things so well. You will recall that several minutes went by and no one clapped or hooted as he basked in the glow of America’s greatness and how we’re not afraid of hard work. Reminds of me Bush (“It’s tough. It’s hard work”).
And then there was the usual ending all presidents leave us with: hope.
We have finished a difficult year. We have come through a difficult decade. But a new year has come. A new decade stretches before us. We don’t quit. I don’t quit. Let’s seize this moment – to start anew, to carry the dream forward, and to strengthen our union once more.
Wow.
What I really dislike about him is how he always frames the argument in terms of what he even referred to in his speech as “false choices.” He keeps setting up the opposition as straw men and then knocks them down. How can that be bipartisan? He took a dig at the Republicans saying that he’s waiting for some good ideas about health care from them. That should tell you something about his agenda.
It’s Obama who isn’t listening.
Apparently, The Daily Capitalist hasn’t learned that it was his speech to give and he could say what he wanted to say any way he wanted to say it, using any language, examples, techniques, etc. If you were President, and inherited a trillion dollar debt, two useless [off the budget] wars; a bloated, ill-conceived mortgage market; a collapsed financial system rampant with bad investments and yells of “save us, save us taxpayers!”; a political party geared only to bring defeat to the other party; etc. etc…..what the hell would you say in a speech? Come on, Daily, show some “objectivity” to us by giving us the context of what he says and why he might be saying it…sometimes, at least! Your comments reveal, to me anyway, too much sarcasm; just for the sake of showing your stripes…i.e. no politician or political system says what you think ought to be said, let alone what should be done with this mess…other than to say the easiest answer of all…”No!”
But, of course, it’s your blog; and YOU can say anything you want, huh? Here’s to the First Amendment! See ya’.
Wow, that’s more of a flame than an objective argument. Everything that comes out of the mouth of the government deserves to be criticized and dissected at every opportunity, that goes without question. Otherwise, they get “things” done, which is more terrifying to me than not. Just as Obama has the right to criticize the supreme court justices, we have even more of a right to question and condemn our president.
The big failure in Obama’s State of the Union, was his escapism. He just acted pissed off at everyone, then came around and said we need to act as a team, but only if you get with my program. What is that? Why are they looking at this stimulus as a positive ROI? It’s not. It’s never worked and any positive results are temporary and cancerous.
Oh, Ted:
I try so hard to educate you and I get this! I feel like a failure. Please help my self esteem and say you are absorbing something. Alas.
I’m going to try to be as nice about this as I can be. You know that’s hard for me.
You ask what I would say in such a speech. I can tell you that it wouldn’t be the crap I heard from our President. Doesn’t it bother you that the same people who got us into this mess are now in charge of getting us out? Their ideas have not changed. I guarantee you that this recovery will be drawn out and that they are laying the groundwork for another bubble. It’s bad for America.
The purpose of The Daily Capitalist is not to spoon feed what you hear everywhere else in the media but to give you a point of view from a free market perspective. The fact that you detected my sarcasm shows that you were listening.
Does it not bother you that on the one hand Obama preaches bipartisanship and on the other trashes not his opponents but their ideas? When I hear him talk about everyone who opposes his march toward European socialism as holders of outmoded ideas which have been proven wrong, or when he arrogantly mischaracterizes the ideas of his opponents and then demolishes these strawmen in his rhetoric, it makes me a bit sarcastic because I think he’s intellectually an empty suit. One could say that he’s a phony because he says one thing and does another in the same breath. His speech was full of this stuff. Then he expect his opponents to meet him half way.
What do you mean by objectivity? This is actually a deep philosophical concept. But, you have apparently drunk the conventional Kool-Aid which sees him as being a reasonable person sincerely trying to help America out of its problems. As you well know, I believe he and his fellow politicians are the problem. I think the title of my piece is actually spot on as a summary of what he said. Everything else in his speech was BS and I believe that there are “objective” people who recognize that.
There is nothing Obama proposed in his speech that will help America out of its economic mess. All that he is doing is wasting our money and dumping a huge burden on our grandchilren for many generations. Further his programs are impeding a recovery and that draws out the pain of those suffering. If you disagree, I welcome your comments on what you think he’s doing right.
When you operated in the political realm, that life was full of compromises and I understand that. You believe that well meaning people can work things out if you get them in a room, tell them like it is, and bang heads. I get that too. But like many people you see things “practically” and tend to dismiss theory.
My view is that theory is everything in economics and all people dealing in economics operate from a theory. Ideas mean something. I believe socialism as a theory is wrong. I believe free market theory is correct. I think I can prove it. I don’t think socialists (progressives, liberals, interventionists, Keynesians, whatever) have ever proven their case theoretically or in practice. I believe everything the Democrats support economically is a shade of socialism. It’s bad for America and now we are paying the price for it.
So, I’m not giving that bastard an inch.
Your above post was a little too much of a rant. You seem way too critical of Every thought or action he has. You coment that there is nothing in the speech that will help America out of the economic mess, wasting money and dumping on our grandchildren. our grandchildren have already been dumped on, and come to think of it I don’t recall any comments on this blog that would be considered positive and feasible progams for potential recovery. Try giving a couple suggestions for your readers that would be feasible, effective and agreeable to both of our fractured political parties parties.
Bryson,
I will first refer you to my reply to Ted and I will stand on that.
Unlike you and Ted, I have no faith in the ability of Democrats or Republicans to do the right thing. Call me a cynic. I have constantly tried to put forth in this blog the ideas of free market economics and how they work.
My solution would be: eliminate the Fed, go to a gold standard, get the government out of the housing financing business, reduce taxes, turn Medicare over to private insurers, kill the health care bill and enact real reform I have suggested, privatize social security, and pay down the national debt. This is just a start.
These reforms would end inflation and these crazy business cycle, free up business to expand, create jobs and prosperity, relieve future generations of a crushing tax burden, allow for retirement and the best health care in the world. It would reinforce the individual liberties which were the basis of the founding of this republic.
I think these reforms are doable over a reasonable time period and are not pie-in-the-sky. History has already proved these ideas work. Whether this is possible in a culture that has no idea of economic theory or the ideals of natural law, and is becoming dependent on government, is a good question.
I think Obama has an agenda which is not good for this country and that nothing he is doing is helping the economy. I have written a lot about why that is. By constantly challenging the conventional wisdom, I hope I can make a difference.
You may disagree.
Thanks that was an excellent and appropriate response. Your blog and commentary is always well written and interesting. Thanks for presenting a clear picture of your ideal solutions and reforms. These are admirable and desirable objectives. In the context of our political reality it is hard to to see the country achieveing the nirvana you have described.
None the less I will continue to be an avid reader . Keep challenging conventional wisdom Regards
Privatize everything is the answer, just let the market work itself out … really? Alan Greenspan wouldn’t agree with you and he’s the father of modern capitalism. Funny how people can’t admit when their life philosophy is a failure until they’re 60 and it doesn’t matter at that point anyway: “Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholder’s equity (myself especially) are in a state of shocked disbelief…. The whole concept of self-regulation through self-interest is now dead.” A system motivated by a disconnected notion of greed, what you call free market, will spiral out of control inevitably. There’s no reason why it wouldn’t. Markets and those corporations enslaved by it arrogantly state they are not here to regulate or be fair to the people they can take money from because “that’s the government’s job” (which is why they’ve invested so much in lobbyists: to make the markets more “free”). Businesses have been entrusted with programs similar to privatized Medicare & Social Security, called 401k pensions. You can look at Enron to see how well that went. And unfortunately many other companies are turning this dubious practice into the norm. Manically comical still is how the biggest capitalists of the day have turned socialist (read bailout) when things get tough. Privatize everything seems hardly the answer, even if it curbs inflation or cuts taxes (which is just an empty talking point for both parties anyway).
And I can tell you from experience, government jobs are so much better than private sector jobs, not because they’re cush jobs, but because they’re held to such rigorous “quality of life” regulations, not just profits. And natural law doesn’t apply to economics, (except as a loose metaphor) where it isn’t survival of the fittest, but survival of those with the most social advantages, who probably couldn’t pitch a tent in the natural world if their life really did depend on it.
Let’s give a Wikipedia a look see at a simplified definition of socialism: “Most socialists share the view that capitalism unfairly concentrates power and wealth among a small segment of society that controls capital and derives its wealth through exploitation, creates an unequal society, does not provide equal opportunities for everyone to maximize their potential and does not utilize technology and resources to their maximum potential nor in the interests of the public.” Please tell me how this isn’t happening right now? I suppose it’s those meddling socialists that destroy the natural equilibrium of greed, ahem, demand?
Solution: Nationalize all personal & company assets over $20 mil, with that pay the national debt, social security, Medicare, universal health care, and have a surplus, go to a salt standard (because practically gold is useless), demand 90% of US company employees be US citizens, 80% of all production must be sold within 1000mi region, do not recognize companies as persons, make lobbyists illegal, demand all houses be built underground & equipped with mini wind turbines & cyclical water/waste systems to solve energy crisis, convert all cars to veggie oil and make restaurants’ used cooking oil the new gas station, make fossil fuel power companies illegal, require those that want a war fight in that war personally, require all politicians including the president live on $40,000/yr (or whatever the median income is) so they can truly understand the economic position of the people they’re supposed to represent. If we do these things in the next 10 years we may be able to survive on this planet until Apophis hits in 2036. (this last paragraph is a joke, kind of)
Dear Afterdayglow:
I loved this comment, but not for the reasons you may think. Assuming this is not a joke, kind of, who would make all these wonderful decisions for us?