State of the Union, Part 1

Last night I promised more on the State of the Union speech. Over all, I'd have to say that I wasn't impressed. There was little that hasn't been said in other State of the Union speeches I've heard over the years, and in the final analysis, they're little more than political theater anyway. Regardless, I promised, so here we go. I've heavily excerpted from the speech below in italics and added my comments as normal text.

Madame Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, and the First Lady of the United States:

Nice of him to neglect the Supreme Court, Joint Chiefs of Staff, his cabinet, and of course, us. Right off the bat, he's pushing my buttons.

I know that for many Americans watching right now, the state of our economy is a concern that rises above all others. And rightly so. If you haven’t been personally affected by this recession, you probably know someone who has – a friend; a neighbor; a member of your family. You don’t need to hear another list of statistics to know that our economy is in crisis, because you live it every day. It’s the worry you wake up with and the source of sleepless nights. It’s the job you thought you’d retire from but now have lost; the business you built your dreams upon that’s now hanging by a thread; the college acceptance letter your child had to put back in the envelope. The impact of this recession is real, and it is everywhere.

Frankly, no, the recession is not my overarching concern. The dramatic and unprecedented expansion of the federal government and the administration's ongoing attempts to ram socialism down our throats without debate would be number one on my list. An adequate national defense would be a strong number two. I guess I'm old fashioned, but I really want my President to stick to his constitutionally mandated duties. I don't care who he is. I don't care which party he belongs to. I just want him or her to stick to the script the founders wrote.

Speaking of sticking to the script, I thought the President was a little off his game last night. Even with the teleprompter, he stumbled on the text several times. I certainly don't hold it against him, but it is unlike him.

But while our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken; though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this:

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

Of course it will. Even though his friends in Congress are largely responsible for the mess we're in, we American's are a hard bunch to keep down. Nothing the government can do will get us out of the recession. It can make things worse, certainly, but it only helps by getting out of the way. Every time government gives to one group, it has to take from another. Picking winners and losers isn't in the job description. We'll come back to this later.

The weight of this crisis will not determine the destiny of this nation. The answers to our problems don’t lie beyond our reach. They exist in our laboratories and universities; in our fields and our factories; in the imaginations of our entrepreneurs and the pride of the hardest-working people on Earth. Those qualities that have made America the greatest force of progress and prosperity in human history we still possess in ample measure. What is required now is for this country to pull together, confront boldly the challenges we face, and take responsibility for our future once more.

Notice the conspicuous absence of government from that list? Care to place any bets it stays out of the discussion? Didn't think so.

Now, if we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll admit that for too long, we have not always met these responsibilities – as a government or as a people. I say this not to lay blame or look backwards, but because it is only by understanding how we arrived at this moment that we’ll be able to lift ourselves out of this predicament.

Does anyone out there really think that he understands how we arrived here? Stand by for it to start getting deep.

The fact is, our economy did not fall into decline overnight. No, in large measure it was pushed by the people in the room he was speaking to. Nor did all of our problems begin when the housing market collapsed or the stock market sank. I'd put that particular marker somewhere in the first Roosevelt administration, others Wilson, still others the second Roosevelt, and there's probably an argument to be made for the Nixon administration as well. We have known for decades that our survival depends on finding new sources of energy. Yet we import more oil today than ever before. So, let me get this straight, he's blaming the economic collapse on our dependence on foreign oil? Give me a break, he's head of the same administration that just shut down the baby steps the Bush administration took to open up domestic production, and speaking to the group that's kept us from reducing that dependence for the last forty years. The cost of health care eats up more and more of our savings each year, yet we keep delaying reform. Maybe because the democrats in Congress keep us from instituting tort reform needed to keep malpractice rates in check, and the .gov keeps distorting the market with tax policy on health insurance premiums that haven't made sense since World War II? Our children will compete for jobs in a global economy that too many of our schools do not prepare them for. That's right, despite our spending more per student than any other government in the developed world. So, perhaps it might be due to other factors like, oh, I don't know, an urban, yes, black culture that deprecates learning as too white, or a union stranglehold on education policy that makes it almost impossible to create incentives for good teachers and rewards bad ones with tenure? And though all these challenges went unsolved, we still managed to spend more money and pile up more debt, both as individuals and through our government, than ever before.

In other words, we have lived through an era where too often, short-term gains were prized over long-term prosperity; where we failed to look beyond the next payment, the next quarter, or the next election. A surplus became an excuse to transfer wealth to the wealthy instead of an opportunity to invest in our future. And just who does he think actually invests? The government doesn't. It removes money that could be invested in the economy as taxes. Regulations were gutted for the sake of a quick profit at the expense of a healthy market. Yup, those pesky government sponsored entities at the heart of the matter were definitely lacking in oversight. Perhaps if the democrats in Congress had been paying attention to the Bush administration any of the seven times it warned of the impending problem we might have stayed afloat. Or better yet, if the government just stopped trying its hand at social engineering, we might have avoided a recession. People bought homes they knew they couldn’t afford from banks and lenders who pushed those bad loans anyway. I don't remember anyone holding a gun to my head as I was signing my mortgage. Silly me, I actually read the damn thing and understood I was signing a binding contract. Oh those bad, evil, wicked lenders. They all need a spanking. (And we know at least one of the congress-critters was getting the oral sex, but I digress.) As an aside, how much did Franklin Raines make again? And all the while, critical debates and difficult decisions were put off for some other time on some other day. I know I'm getting old, but I have a vague memory of several previous administrations trying to reform social security and being thwarted by whom? Yeah, those democrats in Congress for whom Saint Franklin could do no wrong.

Well that day of reckoning has arrived, and the time to take charge of our future is here.

Call me a cynic, but I have serious doubts that a guy with no previous executive experience and who barely got his seat warm in the Senate is going to be able to roll Nancy and Harry. I'd love to take charge of my future, but somehow, I think the government might have other plans.

Now is the time to act boldly and wisely – to not only revive this economy, but to build a new foundation for lasting prosperity. Now is the time to jumpstart job creation, re-start lending, and invest in areas like energy, health care, and education that will grow our economy, even as we make hard choices to bring our deficit down. That is what my economic agenda is designed to do, and that’s what I’d like to talk to you about tonight.

Note: this would be a good point to pause and wrap your head in duct tape.

As soon as I took office, I asked this Congress to send me a recovery plan by President’s Day that would put people back to work and put money in their pockets. Not because I believe in bigger government – I don’t. And the Pope's not Catholic either. Not because I’m not mindful of the massive debt we’ve inherited – I am. I should hope so, you've just doubled it and are heading for the record books yourself. I called for action because the failure to do so would have cost more jobs and caused more hardships. Now see Barack, if you read a little more Von Mises or Hayek, you might have a different opinion. In fact, a failure to act would have worsened our long-term deficit by assuring weak economic growth for years. Sure, doubling down on the deficit's going to make it much smaller. That makes sense. That’s why I pushed for quick action. No, you pushed for quick action because you didn't want anyone to actually have a chance to read the bill and conduct an informed debate. And tonight, I am grateful that this Congress delivered, and pleased to say that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is now law. Gee, thanks Congress. I guess those ten to one against calls you were getting from your constituents just couldn't get in the way of doing the bidding of The One.

Over the next two years, this plan will save or create 3.5 million jobs. Remember, he started out claiming the plan would create those 3.5 million jobs. Someone must have realized just what the actual likelihood of that was and the wording changed to the non-falsifiable “save or create” shtick. More than 90% of these jobs will be in the private sector – jobs rebuilding our roads and bridges; constructing wind turbines and solar panels; laying broadband and expanding mass transit. Thank you ever so much for those 350,000 additional public sector employees at roughly $100k/yr a pop. That's surely going to help the deficit.

Because of this plan, there are teachers who can now keep their jobs and educate our kids. Health care professionals can continue caring for our sick. There are 57 police officers who are still on the streets of Minneapolis tonight because this plan prevented the layoffs their department was about to make. I just checked my Constitution again. I couldn't find teaching kids, caring for the sick, or policing the streets anywhere among the responsibilities of the federal government. Barack, here's a hint, if the federal government took less money out of our pockets, our state and local governments might be better able to afford their responsibilities. Try reading the ninth and tenth amendments sometime. I know you're a constitutional scholar and all, but those to seem to have escaped your notice. [Here's a news flash for some of my readers, I actually think the states could be doing more. They just need to be mindful of the consequences of what they do in the marketplace. California, New York, and Massachusetts are you listening? Florida, are you listening? You've gone too much the other way, and I hated living there when I did because you didn't take care of kids.]

Because of this plan, 95% of the working households in America will receive a tax cut – a tax cut that you will see in your paychecks beginning on April 1st. Yeah, a whole ten bucks a week according to the new withholding tables. They picked the right day to launch this little nugget, didn't they?

I know there are some in this chamber and watching at home who are skeptical of whether this plan will work. I understand that skepticism. Here in Washington, we’ve all seen how quickly good intentions can turn into broken promises and wasteful spending. And 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 – because nobody messes with Joe. Well, now I feel better. We've put the plagiarist gaffe-omatic in charge. What could go wrong? I have told each member of my Cabinet as well as mayors and governors across the country that they will be held accountable by me and the American people for every dollar they spend. I have appointed a proven and aggressive Inspector General to ferret out any and all cases of waste and fraud. And we have created a new website called recovery.gov so that every American can find out how and where their money is being spent. And I'm sure that it'll be every bit as complete as that list of executive orders you've posted, and there's just no way that there's any incentive to not list a wasteful project when you've told all the agency heads, mayors and governors that they'll be held accountable if there's any waste. Nope, I'm absolutely sure that the bastion of integrity heading the Treasury will make sure that everything's properly accounted for.

I want to speak plainly and candidly about this issue tonight, (that would be nice, wouldn't it?) because every American should know that it directly affects you and your family’s well-being. You should also know that the money you’ve deposited in banks across the country is safe; your insurance is secure; and you can rely on the continued operation of our financial system. That is not the source of concern. No, you're the source of my concern, but I repeat myself. Sorry.

The concern is that if we do not re-start lending in this country, our recovery will be choked off before it even begins.

You see, the flow of credit is the lifeblood of our economy. The ability to get a loan is how you finance the purchase of everything from a home to a car to a college education; how stores stock their shelves, farms buy equipment, and businesses make payroll.

But credit has stopped flowing the way it should. Too many bad loans from the housing crisis have made their way onto the books of too many banks. With so much debt and so little confidence, these banks are now fearful of lending out any more money to households, to businesses, or to each other. When there is no lending, families can’t afford to buy homes or cars. So businesses are forced to make layoffs. Our economy suffers even more, and credit dries up even further. No, you see, the credit marketplace responded exactly as it should and stopped throwing good money after bad. People stopped buying because they realized they were over extended. There's a reason why Dave Ramsey has one of the most popular shows on the radio, but I forget, you don't listen to talk radio, do you?

That is why this administration is moving swiftly and aggressively to break this destructive cycle, restore confidence, and re-start lending. Yup, you're going to take almost 900 billion dollars out of the private sector that desperately needs it to fund growth by borrowing or taxing it, filter it all through a government bureaucracy that adds no value, and give it to your friends for projects of dubious worth. That sure restores my confidence in the economic recovery.

We will do so in several ways. First, we are creating a new lending fund that represents the largest effort ever to help provide auto loans, college loans, and small business loans to the consumers and entrepreneurs who keep this economy running. Okay, let me get this straight. You're going to mitigate the consequences of the last government created credit bubble by doing more of the same? No wonder you seemed to stumble while you were giving this speech. I wouldn't have been able to do it with a straight face either.

Second, we have launched a housing plan that will help responsible families facing the threat of foreclosure lower their monthly payments and re-finance their mortgages. 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 – Americans who will now be able to take advantage of the lower interest rates that this plan has already helped bring about. In fact, the average family who re-finances today can save nearly $2000 per year on their mortgage. Not one word about the property rights of those investors funding those mortgages. Nope, screw those folks who invested their savings in other people's homes. I guess I wouldn't have expected a red-diaper baby like Barack to have seen It's a Wonderful Life.

Third, we will act with the full force of the federal government to ensure that the major banks that Americans depend on have enough confidence and enough money to lend even in more difficult times. And when we learn that a major bank has serious problems, we will hold accountable those responsible, force the necessary adjustments, provide the support to clean up their balance sheets, and assure the continuity of a strong, viable institution that can serve our people and our economy. That's right folks, you can count on the very same bank regulators who missed all those signs of trouble the last time to get it right this time. And just how many of them are going to be held accountable? I won't be holding my breath.

I understand that on any given day, Wall Street may be more comforted by an approach that gives banks bailouts with no strings attached, and that holds nobody accountable for their reckless decisions. But such an approach won’t solve the problem. And our goal is to quicken the day when we re-start lending to the American people and American business and end this crisis once and for all. No, actually, I suspect very strongly that Wall Street would prefer you stay the hell out of their business. Now, if you wanted to strengthen the ability of shareholders to hold corporations accountable, I might be able to find some common ground with you.

I intend to hold these banks fully accountable for the assistance they receive, and this time, they will have to clearly demonstrate how taxpayer dollars result in more lending for the American taxpayer. This time, CEOs won’t be able to use taxpayer money to pad their paychecks or buy fancy drapes or disappear on a private jet. Those days are over. Of course, you'll be spending billions of our hard earned cash building nice new buildings for DHS, sodding the National Mall, funding Speaker Pelosi's private jet, buying a new squadron of Marine One's, and taking that multi-aircraft traveling road show known as Air Force One on hundred and fifty mile jaunts to Virginia, but that's all okay, 'cause you're from the government and you just want to help.

I understand that when the last administration asked this Congress to provide assistance for struggling banks, Democrats and Republicans alike were infuriated by the mismanagement and results that followed. So were the American taxpayers. So was I. That would be the last emergency bill that had to be passed NOW or the world would end. So now we're stuck with another abomination that nobody read before they voted for, or signed it, and we're all supposed to think that everything's going to be just fine. Right.

So I know how unpopular it is to be seen as helping banks right now, especially when everyone is suffering in part from their bad decisions. I promise you – I get it. No, you don't. Everybody out here between the coasts understands that it wasn't exactly the fault of the banks, and we're scared to death that you're going to make it worse. In fact, most of us are fairly convinced that Congress can make just about anything worse without breaking a sweat.

But I also know that in a time of crisis, we cannot afford to govern out of anger, or yield to the politics of the moment. No, we can't yield to the politics of the moment. That would be why so many of us are upset with you and Congress doing exactly that. Tell me again why, given the ponderous nature of federal and state procurement processes, you couldn't take a few days to let people, hell, let Congress, read the damn stimulus bill. My job – our job – is to solve the problem. No, your job is to let US solve the problem. Our job is to govern with a sense of responsibility. Amen, now why do I doubt your ability to do that? I will not spend a single penny for the purpose of rewarding a single Wall Street executive, but I will do whatever it takes to help the small business that can’t pay its workers or the family that has saved and still can’t get a mortgage. Right. You're going to make those small businesses pay COBRA rates for employees they've had to lay off, potentially putting them out of business. You're going to try your damnedest to keep the housing bubble inflated, thus propping up home prices and keeping the existing housing stock from selling at market appropriate prices, further delaying the building of those new homes. Perhaps instead of organizing communities, you might have tried creating jobs and putting people to work instead. It might have given you a different perspective.

So I ask this Congress to join me in doing whatever proves necessary. Because we cannot consign our nation to an open-ended recession. And to ensure that a crisis of this magnitude never happens again, I ask Congress to move quickly on legislation that will finally reform our outdated regulatory system. It is time to put in place tough, new common-sense rules of the road so that our financial market rewards drive and innovation, and punishes short-cuts and abuse. It was Congress' common sense rules that got us into this mess. It was only common sense that we provide mortgages to every comer. That's the American Dream after all. It was only the Fed's common sense that mismanaged the money supply, contributing to the credit crisis. It was only your common sense solutions that have resulted in a two thousand point drop in the Dow as the market responded to your plans. And as for rewarding drive and innovation, I guess that means you'll be keeping those Bush tax cuts in place then? Didn't think so.

The recovery plan and the financial stability plan are the immediate steps we’re taking to revive our economy in the short-term. But the only way to fully restore America’s economic strength is to make the long-term investments that will lead to new jobs, new industries, and a renewed ability to compete with the rest of the world. The only way this century will be another American century is if we confront at last the price of our dependence on oil and the high cost of health care; the schools that aren’t preparing our children and the mountain of debt they stand to inherit. That is our responsibility. One wonders if the speech writing shop saw the double meaning in that last sentence. Probably not, they still think Gibbs is doing a great job.

Given these realities, everyone in this chamber – Democrats and Republicans – will have to sacrifice some worthy priorities for which there are no dollars. And that includes me. And boys and girls, that's why we've already passed everything we wanted for the next decade in the stimulus bill!

We know the country that harnesses the power of clean, renewable energy will lead the 21st century. No, it'll be the country with the cheapest, most efficient energy. That's not the same thing. Next time, hire an engineer instead of a physicisy to head the Energy department. And yet, it is China that has launched the largest effort in history to make their economy energy efficient. We invented solar technology, but we’ve fallen behind countries like Germany and Japan in producing it. New plug-in hybrids roll off our assembly lines, but they will run on batteries made in Korea.

Well I do not accept a future where the jobs and industries of tomorrow take root beyond our borders – and I know you don’t either. It is time for America to lead again. And that's why I'm proposing to reform our corporate tax rates and capital gains taxes to be the most competitive in the developed world. Oh, wait, that's just what I wanted to hear. Sorry.

Thanks to our recovery plan, we will double this nation’s supply of renewable energy in the next three years. That's right, we're going to go from what, five percent to a whopping ten, and at what cost? Oh, and we're going to wave the magic wand so the wind always blows and the sun never sets so we don't have to worry about the energy storage issues with either of these technologies. We'd never want to have to pump water into reservoirs or any of those other large scale things that might be nasty for the bugs and bunnies. We have also made the largest investment in basic research funding in American history – an investment that will spur not only new discoveries in energy, but breakthroughs in medicine, science, and technology. Color me a skeptic. We've only been hearing this crap since Nixon.

We will soon lay down thousands of miles of power lines that can carry new energy to cities and towns across this country. And we will put Americans to work making our homes and buildings more efficient so that we can save billions of dollars on our energy bills. Because we know there's just been no incentive to be efficient until now.

But to truly transform our economy, protect our security, and save our planet from the ravages of climate change, we need to ultimately make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy. So I ask this Congress to send me legislation that places a market-based cap on carbon pollution and drives the production of more renewable energy in America. And to support that innovation, we will invest fifteen billion dollars a year to develop technologies like wind power and solar power; advanced biofuels, clean coal, and more fuel-efficient cars and trucks built right here in America. In other words, because you know that renewables can't compete on their own, you have to make everything else MORE EXPENSIVE. Some innovation. One more news flash for you Barack, when you make cars lighter and more fuel efficient two things happen, people drive more because individual trips are less expensive, and more people die because they're less well protected. Some estimates I've seen put the numbers at several thousand additional deaths each year just due to the standards already in place. As James Montgomery Scott, PBUH, might say, Mr. President, you canna' fight the laws of physics.

As for our auto industry, everyone recognizes that years of bad decision-making and a global recession have pushed our automakers to the brink. We should not, and will not, protect them from their own bad practices. But we are committed to the goal of a re-tooled, re-imagined auto industry that can compete and win. Millions of jobs depend on it. Scores of communities depend on it. And I believe the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it. No, my fellow Americans, you've made the wrong choices buying those import cars which better met your needs. You shouldn't be supporting those non-union workers down South because they've all got confederate flags in their pickup trucks, and don't contribute dues to our campaigns. You should have been giving your money to the good democrats in Detroit that wasted the seventies, eighties and most of the nineties learning how to make a decent car that you might want.

For that same reason, we must also address the crushing cost of health care. And here is where I'm going to call it a night. We'll return here tomorrow.