Thursday, January 28, 2010

State of the Union Address

You can probably look at the title of this blog and ascertain what I thought of last night's speech. So many others have commented, though, that I have nothing new to add. I'll offer these three links, though, with which I readily agree.

What struck me most, though--and these thoughts are all addressed in the links above--are the following:

  • Attacking the Supreme Court as he did had to be unprecedented; it was certainly rude and ill-advised and does not show respect for separation of powers, a cornerstone of our government.
  • How funny was it for him to tell us about all the taxes he cut (Yes, Barack, you're known as a taxcutter. Right.) and then, just a few moments later, blame the current recession in part on President Bush's tax cuts.
  • The guy still sounds like he's campaigning. You'd think that after Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, he'd sound a little chastened or at least conciliatory. Instead he was cajoling and needling, doubling down on his past mistakes. This is not how you make friends and influence people.
  • Keep blaming all your problems on President Bush, Barack, because no one's buying it anymore. As others have said, man up. Put on your big boy pants and act like a President.
Those were my thoughts during the speech. What are yours?
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5 comments:

  1. Unknown7:19 PM

    What about all that laughter when he talked about the global warming nonsense. It sounded like sinister laughter to me. I thought he'd forget about cap and tax after those emails surfaced, but he hasn't.

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  2. PeggyU12:21 PM

    My thoughts:

    #1: Liar!
    #2: Does Nancy Pelosi have a spring in her butt?

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  3. mmazenko2:58 PM

    Actually, Darren, half the country is buying it, which includes about half of independents.

    There were parts I liked, as well as parts I didn't. However, there is no denying that $7 trillion of the debt is not his. Even Gregory Mankiw, conservative economist and Bush's former economic adviser, concurs with that.

    We need to pay down $12 trillion in debt. 12 trillion. I am all for low tax rates (83 and 92 levels are good targets). But there is no way to pay down that debt without spending cuts, entitlement reform, and tax increases.

    Some libertarian populists will balk, but I'll go with David Walker and the Concord Coalition on this one. Half to go with the government accountants and conservative economists on this one.

    Pay down the 12 trillion, reform SS and Medicare, starting at fifty years out, and then reform the tax code, shooting for a simplified version of '83 and '92.

    That's how I vote.

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  4. KauaiMark8:53 AM

    I like where he keeps using the phrase "last eight years" in references of blame.

    Doesn't he realize that one of those was HIS now?

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  5. Darren10:11 AM

    And of those last 8 years, 3 of them had Reid and Pelosi and the rest of the Democrats running the Congress.

    ReplyDelete