I often skip the State of the Union altogether because, really, if you've heard one you've heard them all. My liberal friends seem to think W. was some sort of conservative champion, but my conservative friends all hated him for selling them out. In part because of some shit he said in State of the Union addresses, promising massive funds for hydrogen cars and whatnot.
These kinds of platitudes are exceptionally pointless because they anger a President's base without actually scoring a single point with the other side. Witness all my liberal friends who's jaws drop when I say I wish W. had just been an earnest conservative, then I'd only hate him a little bit.
I heard my obstinately liberal boss today bitching about Obama, about how the Republicans get in and work hard for their agenda, so why can't the Dems do the same. Maybe a Republican agenda gets advanced, but nothing you could really call a conservative agenda has been advanced in the past 80 years by either party. Ever, and don't bring up Reagan, he promised to get rid of the (then) brand new Department of Education and instead immediately put his own cronies in charge of it.
So Obama maybe hasn't succeeded in advancing liberal causes, only Democratic ones.
Here are some of my modest injections into the national debate:
• The pregame had the talking heads referring to the Massachusetts Senate election as if it were 9/11. They kept speaking in terms of a post-Massachusetts world as if I'd no longer be able to carry a Gloria Steinem book aboard an airplane.
• Obama's talk about how a 'second depression' had been averted. By Obama's continuance of a set of polices that not only does nothing to alleviate the problem, but are the same moves that caused the problem to begin with. The economy needs more 'liquidity' from the Fed like Tiger Woods' marriage needs more girlfriends to get it on a stable footing.
• The Fed talk made me think of a Three Card Monty game, he'll keep moving the cards around, good luck if you can guess where.
• The Con Game vibe got even heavier when he claimed to have cut taxes for 95% of Americans. This was a campaign promise, but am I in the 5%? My tax burden hasn't gone down at all, not in any area. My property tax on my house is now based on a slightly lower number thanks to the bubble bursting, but the mill levy was adjusted to compensate, so I'm no better off. And if I were, I still can't sell my house for what I owe on it to move closer to my job.
• Claims that Obama has cut taxes, I just flat out don't get it. What taxes have been cut? Provide me with a single specific that is actually a tax cut and I might just eat my shoe.
• A Jobs Bill: Government does not create jobs. Not even public sector jobs, since those have to be paid for by a reallocation of private sector resources. There are not two million people working today who wouldn't be if it weren't for the bailout. If anything, there are less people working thanks to Uncle Sam. And claiming victory over the recession is a bit like the Iraq 'Mission Accomplished' banner.
• Capital gains on small businesses shouldn't be taxed, but apparently the same taxes on big business are fair game. What? I don't care if a job comes at IBM or I.B. Small Engine Repair, so why would I want to give the latter a break I'd deny the former?
• Shipping jobs overseas: dude, if someone can make the pants for less, you have to let him make the pants. This is how economies develop, and it's the height of arrogance to pretend other countries can do it without going through the same growing pains we did. The more partners there are in trade, the richer everyone can get. Including those poor SOBs in China.
• Cursing the housing bubble and vowing to not let it happen again is a bit like hearing Jeff Dahmer show how to keep captives safe. The housing bubble was caused by inflationary Fed policy, something that's supported by both the so-called parties. Inflationary policy is the culprit both for the bubble and its hangover, and going the hard money route is the only real solution, unpopular as it might be among the corruptly wealthy.
• Promises of a 'new generation' of nuclear power plants and exploring offshore drilling rings as hollow as W.'s promises of hydrogen cars. It looks good on paper, but the first nuclear power plant approved under Obama's rule, I really might eat my shoe.
• The idea that you can make college more affordable by increasing tax credits, Pell Grants and forgiveness for student loans is so absurd it's not even funny. All of these things will encourage people to spend even more recklessly on a college degree that may or may not be any better in the real world than a HS diploma or even a GED. We don't need more Federal involvement in education; the Department of Education is about as helpful as the Taliban at actually getting anyone educated.
• Obama claimed to be open to better ideas about health care reform than his own. Really? Including my idea that we end Medicare and Medicaid and treat health insurance the way we do automobile liability insurance? My idea would actually work, so I doubt Obama is actually open to it any more than he's really interested in seeing a single nuclear power plant started on his watch.
• Obama's claim that he'll freeze spending on a tiny fraction of the budget, and that this will make any difference in the deficit is just a flat out lie. We don't need a freeze in 12% of the budget, we need a reduction in every area. Not a shrinkage in growth, we need to actually cut back.
• He cites pay-as-you-go as the cause of the 1990s surpluses, which weren't even surpluses because Congress spent them twice over as soon as they were even theorized. The tech bubble, also caused by the Federal Reserve, is what made those pseudo-surpluses.
• As far as restoring faith in good government, I think Obama needs to be disabused of the notion that anyone with a basic level of intelligence will ever believe there is such a thing as 'good government.' When he speaks of 'deep and corrosive doubts,' I find myself shouting at the TV, How about deep and well founded corrosive doubts??? Don't give me this shit about the government we deserve, I want one better than THAT!
• Other surprises: he compares himself to JFK and Reagan in one breath. Wow, talk about delusional. I'll give you that he's charismatic, and I guess Regan and JFK were, too. And Kennedy did flirt with 'supply side' economics, though that was back before it was called that, but Obama's actual track record so far looks more like Jimmy Carter to my eye.
• Oh, and he hints that queers should be able to serve in the military without fear. They've been serving perfectly well in fear, so I'm not sure what we gain by lifting the ban. It's the army, it has its purpose. Some dudes like to bat for the other team, always have. I've never understood why the military would feel the need to exclude homosexuals, really, but anyone who expects their world to make logical sense would do well to avoid enlisting in the first place.
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