I was going to write a blog about President Obama’s speech to congress on Feb. 24th but I decided there is so much in it I take issue with, one blog wouldn’t be enough so this is installment #1. I’m also going to write it as a personal reply to the President and pose questions that I would really like answers to. I don't think I'll really get answers but I'd like to ask anyway...
The first thing I noticed while listening to you speak Mr. President is that you still seem to take every opportunity to blame Republicans and the Bush administration for everything. You stated again more than once that you “inherited” the economic “crisis.” You used the term “crisis” twice in the first minute or so of your speech so you’re still using fear as a motivating factor to get people to follow you. No surprise there…
You did make a few factual errors during the speech but nothing of much importance. While making a statement about knowing for years that we should reduce our dependence on imported oil, you stated that we are importing more than ever before which isn’t true. Oil imports have actually fallen over the last couple of years. Not by enough, but they have still fallen. Maybe someone in your staff didn’t check the facts on that one.
When you were talking about the auto companies, you stated that America invented the automobile. Well, that’s not exactly true either but there’s no doubt that America is big in the car industry and our manufacturing capability is unmatched so that statement is fairly trivial. The issue of the auto companies is actually one thing that I happen to agree with you on since you indicated that we should not let the car companies fail and I think that’s a very intelligent view. It’s not just the companies themselves but we don’t want to lose the very manufacturing capability I mentioned earlier. Congress doesn’t seem to agree with you though. They only want to give money to the bankers, you know, those guys that they get all the campaign contributions from.
There are however a good number of things that you said that I did take serious issue with Mr. President, mainly because you seem to be lying through your teeth. Maybe that’s not true so let’s take a look at some of them and maybe you can clarify.
The first thing that I couldn’t believe was that you actually said, while talking about the “recovery plan”, that you had asked congress to come up with a bill that would “put people back to work and put money in their pockets. Not because I believe in bigger government – I don’t." Really… You could have fooled me since you are growing government bigger than it has ever been in its history. You went on to say, “In fact, a failure to act would have worsened our long-term deficit by assuring weak economic growth for years. That’s why I pushed for quick action” Well, there are a lot of prominent economists and Nobel laureates that disagree with you Mr. President, but maybe you’re smarter than all those guys. What do they know, right? You certainly did push for quick action though, that’s for sure. It was passed so fast, nobody even had a chance to read it. Nobody in congress or you yourself actually read the thing before it was signed into law. Personally, I don’t think that’s very responsible or prudent. Actually, I think it’s pretty stupid, but then what do I know, right? You told us all that we couldn’t wait, we had to act now, we had to get this bill passed or the market may spiral down and be unrecoverable. Well, Mr. President, you got the bill passed, so what exactly is happening right now to save our economy? What is working to bring our economy up right now, this week? What was so important to get working that it couldn’t wait for a week or two for the biggest spending spree in history to at least be read before it was passed? Is our economy being stimulated yet? I don’t see anything…
You made the statement that, “Over the next two years, this plan will save or create 3.5 million jobs.” I had to laugh when you said that because it’s pure politician-speak. It will “save or create” jobs. Nice wording since if it doesn’t create jobs, you can say well, it saved jobs. Of course there’s absolutely no way you can measure how many jobs it saved because jobs not lost might not have been lost even without the bill so by using that wording, you can take credit later even if the bill actually slows the growth of jobs. Nice touch, Mr. Politician.
You said, “Because of this plan, 95% or the working households in America will receive a tax cut – a tax cut that you will see in your paychecks beginning on April 1st.” I can’t thank you enough for that Mr. President. That extra $13 a week will help so much, I’ll be able to buy a couple extra hamburgers at McDonalds or maybe even a medium pizza. I feel better already…
You tried to get another dig in against Bush and Republicans when you said, “Here in Washington, we’ve all seen how quickly good intentions can turn into broken promises and wasteful spending.” You’re absolutely right about that. We have seen that in the past and we are seeing it again right now at your hand. If you had actually read the bill you signed, you would see that over half of it is wasteful spending. I’m being kind there; some estimates are as high as 80% wasteful spending.
And speaking of "broken promises", did you forget your campaign promise that you would put every bill up on the internet for all of the American people to read before you signed it? I believe you said at least 48 hours, though that wouldn’t have been nearly enough time to read this turkey…
You said, “with a plan of this scale comes enormous responsibility to get it right. That is why I have asked Vice President Biden to lead a tough, unprecedented oversight effort…” Gee, Mr. President, I feel so reassured with Joe Biden keeping track of all that spending. I’m sure he’ll keep us all informed by putting information up on the website, if only he could remember the “number” of the website…
Well, I think that’s enough for everyone to think about today. I’ll bring up some more issues tomorrow.
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