The first thing that perked the hairs on the back of my neck was within 30 seconds of the start of President Obama’s address to the nation. It didn’t take him long to mention the “crisis” this nation is in and I immediately braced myself for another letdown by the President. I’ve become so sick of the negative tone of Obama that he has communicated time and time again. But then, a bright side that gave me hope:

We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before.

I thought, THERE is the President I was hoping to hear tonight. The President of the United States holds a lot of power to sway the opinions of Americans. If he conveys a negative tone, the country will imitate that and act accordingly. However, if the President is positive in his language and seeks to persuade the country that we will get through this, the country will also be positive and act accordingly.

Unfortunately, immediately after saying those glorious, he delved right back into “crisis” mode. The next sentence caused me to cringe again: “The weight of this crisis will not determine the destiny of this nation.” Can’t this man JUST ONCE spin things away from the crisis. It’s called intentional diversion. It isn’t a lie to simply try and get Americans to forget and move on. But the Pessimist in Chief was out in full force.

The first hit the President took in laying blame for the problems we’re encountering today were directed at energy. He noted that the answer to some of our problems comes from finding “new sources of energy.” Those sources of energy exist, but he opposed them as a Senator. He blocked opening up lands to the fuel that could fix our foreign reliance problems. He and his band of merry naysayers have put up roadblock after roadblock in finding and exploiting these sources of oil. But he doesn’t mention this when he talks about “importing more oil than ever before” even though he could have helped to avoid it.

Next on the chopping block was the housing crisis. The President mentioned that too many people took out loans they couldn’t afford and that there wasn’t any debate or decision making to fix it. The truth is that there was a lot of discussion and decisions WERE made. Unfortunately, those decisions were to allow MORE people who couldn’t afford homes to purchase them. In fact, they were mandated and as a result you and I had to bail out the companies that the federal government required to lend the money, Freddie Mack and Fannie Mae.

President Obama then spoke about the piece de resistance, the national debt. He asked Congress to send him a recovery package before Presidents Day, “Not because I’m not mindful of the massive debt we’ve inherited - I am.” Yes, President Obama inherited a massive debt - so did Bush. When President Bush entered the White, he inherited a nearly $3.4 trillion debt. Then, 9/11 hit and spending was naturally increased to deal with the threats. We spent billions of dollars updating our airports, seaports, borders, and embassy security. We spent billions of dollars updating armored vehicles, combat systems, and veteran care from the inevitable losses that result from war. In the first six years in office, even with all these extra, unforseen expenses, the debt only grew an additional $1.6 trillion. I say ONLY as if it’s some small number. The fact is that it IS small number compared to what happened to the debt from 2006 through today. In the past two years that Senator Obama and rest of the Democrats have controlled the nation’s check book and spending, the debt rose over $2.2 trillion!! It took this President and Congress two years to trump what it took President Bush six years to do plus some. Don’t get me wrong, President Bush is also responsible for half for signing the irresponsible spending into law. And just last week we were given another $1.3 trillion in debt. Perhaps the most ironic (or oxymoronic) statement made of the night was this one:

In order to save our children from a future of debt…

What he said after that is really unimportant considering the fact that since President Barack Obama got into office, he’s spent $36 billion PER DAY!!

Talking about the housing plan, Obama said, “It’s a plan that won’t help speculators or that neighbor down the street who bought a house he could never hope to afford, but it will help millions of Americans who are struggling with declining home values.” The problem with this is that no one in the media, nor the President himself, has stated exactly HOW he’s going to ensure that money does not go to home buyers who used bad judgment. What are the criteria for figuring that out? Who is the deciding factor in deciding whether I’m in over my head or just got “screwed” by the system?

One of the more interesting things he said, that definitely perked my interest, was that his plan will create or “save” 3.5 million jobs. Did you notice that second part? Save jobs. Exactly how is that going to be trapped. How do we know that what he’s done has saved any jobs. In his speech he mentioned 57 jobs in Minnesota that belonged to police officers that were saved. Only 3,499,943 more to account for. Also, as jobs are created when the market stabilizes and starts picking itself back up, will jobs that are created by companies that had nothing to do with stimulus be factored in? I wager yes.

He said that 90% of the jobs will be in the private sector. That means 10% will be government jobs? Which, in turn, means that Obama just added 350,000 government jobs!! Kind of odd considering he said early on in his speech he’s against bigger government. 350,000 additional government jobs seems a LOT bigger to me. The president’s own economists, in a report prepared last month, stated, “It should be understood that all of the estimates presented in this memo are subject to significant margins of error” when mentioning the 3.5 million figure.

He also said that 95% of working households will get a tax cut. Interesting since 95% of the workforce doesn’t pay taxes. Considering that 38% of the workforce doesn’t pay taxes, or has a negative tax burden, the 95% number simply doesn’t make sense. Since ALL employees DO pay some federal taxes (Medicare and Social Security) maybe he’s talking about lowering taxes on those. If that’s the case, how in the hell is he going to pay for the growing costs of those programs that he specifically mentioned in his address? Is he saying that 5% of the workforce will pay for 100% of the Medicare and Social Security burdens in this country? If he does, he’s violating the “promote the general Welfare” clause of the preamble to the Constitution as well as Section 8 that mandates that any duties or taxes imposed on the American people “be uniform throughout the United States”. What does “uniform” mean? It means “without variations in detail”. That means that all taxes must be identical - the same! If 5% of Americans are carrying a different tax burden than 95% of Americans, then it is UNconstitutional and open to legal contention.

I have promised publicly that if I am sent a refund check under this stimulus package, I will create a video in which I burn mine for all to see. I refuse to be a part of the my kids’ economic woes!! I will NOT be cashing my check regardless of how badly I need it. I would rather eat rice for weeks on end.

After adding $2.4 trillion dollars to the debt in less than six months, President Obama has “identified two trillion dollars in savings over the next decade.” So, after about 10 years, provided we don’t add more to the national debt, we’ll have paid for ALMOST everything we’ve spent in just the past six months. Then what do we do with the other $10 trillion? The President honestly has the power to remove $2 trillion of debt in his first four years! It will hurt and require extreme measures like disbanding the Department of Education, the FCC, and bringing the troops home, but it can be done. We can also cut about 50% off the federal payrolls. The federal government can impose a mandatory 4-day work week as well as mandatory close of business times to save energy and timecard charges. If Obama and Congress is truly committed to reducing the debt, it should have no problem being the real leaders they are and making these tough, but necessary, decisions.

I am happy that he mentioned ending weapons programs that are over budget and past their time. I think that a great deal of attention needs to be paid to procurement. I can’t think of one major weapons procurement project that didn’t go over budget. I love the movie “Pentagon Wars” and recommend it to anyone who hasn’t seen it if they want to see how the process of weapons and equipment procurement in the military is done. Even though the movie is nearly 15 years old, nothing has changed. I’m glad the President has made this one of his priorities and hope he follows through with it and doesn’t bow to pressure from generals trying to justify their existence. Speaking of generals, I don’t think the military needs as many generals as have. We could save so much money scaling back all the stars we’ve created as well as all their “perks” that leave them out of touch with troops on the ground.

I’m sick and tired of hearing how none of the problems today are Obama’s fault. He refuses to take responsibility for anything. He didn’t do so during the campaign when answering questions about Resko, Wright, Ayers, and ACORN and he isn’t doing so now with regard to all the tax cheats he’s bringing into his cabinet. It’s never his fault. “I didn’t know.” “I was unaware.” We have elected the most ignorant person to the nation’s highest office than EVER (ignorant = lacking knowledge or information as to a particular subject or fact).

As for our military, President Obama vowed to continue President Bush’s policies of increasing our troop levels and pay. You heard me, “continue President Bush’s policies.” But honestly, if we’re trying to reduce the debt, why are we increasing our pay and benefits. We can always have more, don’t get me wrong, but we’re pretty well taken care of. I think that if you asked any Soldier, Marine, Airman, or Sailor which was more important, paying off our nation’s debt or getting a raise, most of them would voluntarily forfeit a raise in favor of balancing the books. I will say right now that I will. Imagine if Congress and our federal workforce ALL volunteered to forfeit raises for a year or two (or more).

Saving the best for last, President Obama spoke about our great troops. But, he ruined it. He completely lost his credibility when he noted that “living our values doesn’t make us weaker, it makes us safer and it makes us stronger. And that is why I can stand here tonight and say without exception or equivocation that the United States of America does not torture.” Why does this frustrate me? Because American has NEVER tortured. Yes, we’ve had some idiots and morons within our military and intelligence agencies, but when those people were exposed they were dealt with immediately and harshly. Never, I repeat NEVER, did we advocate torture. I defy you to produce anything that says we ever did. With that said, I’m not completely opposed to the practice. While I’ll never employ it, nor will I ever allow it to happen with my knowledge, I understand how some can be led to utilize it, especially against the kind of enemy we’re fighting that has no fear of gruesome and complete death. But, it’s still illegal and the President said nothing new tonight with respect to this topic.

Overall, it was a very mixed speech for me. I was happy to hear him say that we will fix the financial regulations that allow the sorts of activities that got us into this mess. I’m glad that there is a focus on education, but what’s all this talk about “dropping out is no longer an option?” Since when does the federal government have power over whether or not I complete high school? Are they going to FORCE us to finish high school? Will a generation of kids be charged with felonies for making a personal (and stupid) decision to drop out? Do we no longer have free will in this nation? I appreciate that the President challenged EVERY American to commit to at least one year of education beyond high school. I like that, I really do. It’s about time we had a president that so strongly urged our nation to get educated, but I adamantly disagree with his assertions that it is MY responsibility to send YOUR child to school. I’ve got my own children I need to support through college. I don’t need to be sending yours too. And you don’t need to be sending mine. There are scholarships up the yin yang out there that are never applied for!! There is money out there without increasing my taxes to pay for these “good to have” programs.

I also liked the President’s call for community and military service. One of the things that I hated about President Bush was how he constantly praised our military, but never asserted how much people needed to volunteer to fill our ranks. We need more public calls from our elected officials to serve in the military, whether the nation has sent us into an unpopular war or not.

I’m excited that he admonished parents who have passed off their parenting onto the school system and public at large. I wholeheartedly agree with him that parents need to read more to their kids. They need to spend more time with them. I need to spend more time with my kids, I admit. Emily always tells me this and now that my Commander in Chief has told me too, I guess I no longer get a free pass.

But, all these things are negated by irresponsible comments like this:

There is, of course, another responsibility we have to our children. And that is the responsibility to ensure that we do not pass on to them a debt they cannot pay. With the deficit we inherited, the cost of the crisis we face, and the long-term challenges we must meet, it has never been more important to ensure that as our economy recovers, we do what it takes to bring this deficit down.

The hypocrisy was dripping from the teleprompters! How dare him invoke Bush in blame for a deficit he helped create and only served to make worse! How dare he preach that we have a responsibility to ensure our kids aren’t saddled with a “debt they cannot pay” when he is responsible for the largest spending package that created more debt in 12 swipes of a pen in history!! His credibility was shot when he said this and I wonder if the media will call him on it. I’ll be paying attention.

He mentioned “crisis” 11 times, by the way. That’s change you can believe in!

Posted on February 25th, 2009 by CJ
Filed under: Uncategorized