"More exports of goods (goal: double exports in 5 years)
Launch of a National Export Initiative"
How can they do this? Why do they want to?
“All student loan debt forgiven after 20 years, after 10 years if they choose a career in public service”
Are they kidding? All private schools will be destroyed… the public schools with public funding will be the only ones left in service…
"Middle Class
Nearly double the child tax credit
Giving access to a retirement account for every worker
Expanding the tax credit for those who start a nest egg (retirement fund)
Refinancing to make more mortgages affordable"
I don’t understand why they keep giving tax breaks for X Y and Z when they could just give general tax breaks with the same effect on savings and the economy…
"Deficit reduction
Starting in 2011, freeze government spending for 3 years on discretionary programs (excluding national security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security)
Eliminate programs that are unaffordable or don’t work
Extend middle-class tax cuts
Bipartisan fiscal commission to provide solutions (created by Executive Order, if necessary)
Restoring pay-as-you-go law"
So he’s saying all these good things. Do you think this is just PR? I mean we usually say politicians have no incentive to be benevolent, but in this case it at least appears he is making an effort.
"
Require lobbyists to disclose every contact they make
Limits on contributions that lobbyists give to candidates"
So this is something that actually hurts the politicians and helps the american people. Or does it? I thought maybe that it would make it harder for his opposition to run in 2012? Or sooner in the 2010 elections? Assuming this benefits incumbents…
“Reform for earmarks, publish them in a single location on the web”
But again, if politicans are evil, why would they do this?
"
Repealing Don’t ask, don’t tell policy within the year to allow homosexuals to openly serve in the military"
It all sounds like political carpet bombing to me. No wonder CBS found over 80% of people who watched the speech agreed with him. They all heard a specific sound-bite that related to their perceptions. [:#]
Every President has delivered a State of the Union Address. Look at what has happened to the nation. Each President does the same thing: Spend money the government does not have, indebt the people further, build the empire, steal our liberty. He’s no different than any other President. The’re all the same (with the possible exception of Grover Cleveland, who vetoed more bills than any other).
Snlowflake: This is a quote from Jeff Tucker’s article on 01/27 about Mark Twain (great article, by way). Twain wrote this in 1866:
“The mania for giving the Government power to meddle with the private affairs of cities or citizens is likely to cause endless trouble … and there is great danger that our people will lose that independence of thought and action which is the cause of much of our greatness, and sink into the helplessness of the Frenchman or German who expects his government to feed him when hungry, clothe him when naked … and, in time, to regulate every act of humanity from the cradle to the tomb, including the manner in which he may seek future admission to paradise.” --Twain’s letter to Enterprise on January 24, 1866. Cited in Budd, p. 38–39.
Nothing has changed, and nothing will change. It is ironic, (and Orwellian?) that Obama used “change” as a campaign slogan.
Obama also criticized the cost of education. Whats ironic about this is anyone who understands the ABCT knows why tuition costs rise so much every year. It’s amazingly simple.
I love how governments version of “Dept Reduction” isn’t a reduction at all but a freeze. A freeze only on certain departments so that all that really happens is a reduction in the growth of national dept. it’s expansion simply slows. But Freeze and reduction do not mean the same thing. Obama should consult a dictionary!
WTF! Why do we have these? WHy do we STILL have these???
It won’t work. You can’t make lobbying transparent like that. It will just resort to back alley deals and ever more shady politician’s and state sponsored corporations.
Just like all that other transperency stuff he was suppose to have done by now? Is he still posting nonsense on youtube every week?
Look its the same rhetoric we’ve been told for the last 50+ presidents. We’re going to do all these great things for the people and make such a huge effort to fix all these problems. Well if the problems could have been fixed they would have been fixed a long time ago, and this perpetual nightmare wouldn’t continue every 4 years. Unfortunately they can’t fix squat, and can never agree to when something is broke or fixed! Ahh the wonders of democracy!
Thanks for posting this Snowflake. I’ve been wanting to get my frustration out too. I couldn’t watch but like the first 10 minutes of it.
Don’t forget he wants to nationalize the student loan industry and instead either set up a government-loan system or give a $10,000 tax credit for those attending 4 year schools (and to further expand pell grants). This will only further undermine private education…or rather private education’s indepence (ie: it’ll be a private college but it’ll cater to what the government likes thanks to funding).
What frightened me the most was Obama’s proposal to give a tax break to companies who either hire new workers or raise wages. Naturally, speaking it’s cheaper to raise wages than it is to hire new workers; to me this is just a direct copy of what Hoover and FDR did during the Depression–a policy of “no wage should ever fall” which only caused further unemployment. Granted, this is optional, and companies won’t have to do this, but it does subsidize those who inflate the wages of their workers.
The other disturbing thing is his push of “green” works programs and jobs. Haven’t we learned from Spain, where each “green” job cost the government untold sums of money annually, and destroyed over 2 jobs in the private sector. They’re economy is in the tank; they don’t have a “Green” economy, but they do have massive amounts of new debt, a huge economic slump, and massive unemployment. To think that it’ll work in the US is foolish, at best.
Most of what he said in the address I didn’t like, but these two, in particular stuck out as being the absolute worst of the pack.