State of the Union 2011

[DRob4JC]

I'm not going to comment on the whole second part of the speech, except for a few points...



Now, the final critical step in winning the future is to make sure we aren't buried under a mountain of debt.

Too late on the debt. Someone please tell me what "winning the future" means.

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So tonight, I am proposing that starting this year, we freeze annual domestic spending for the next five years. (Applause.) Now, this would reduce the deficit by more than $400 billion over the next decade,

OK - the deficit is $14T, and he's talking about $400B over 10 years - so that's only $40B a year. After 10 years, that would put a 2.8% dent in the deficit if nothing else changed. That's virtually nothing.

What about freezing spending? - if we are now spending more than we bring in, and we freeze THAT - then we are still spending more than we bring in and we are still screwed.

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And if we truly care about our deficit, we simply can't afford a permanent extension of the tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans. (Applause.)

Why is it that when he lifts himself up stating that he's for tax cuts, those cuts went to 95% of the population - but when he demogogues tax cuts, it's only the rich 2% that get tax cuts? Shouldn't he say that we can't afford tax cuts that benefit 95% of working Americans? (Even though the whole statement is false since 52% of working American pay taxes)

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We should have no illusions about the work ahead of us. Reforming our schools, changing the way we use energy, reducing our deficit –- none of this will be easy. All of it will take time. And it will be harder because we will argue about everything. The costs. The details. The letter of every law.

Of course, some countries don't have this problem. If the central government wants a railroad, they build a railroad, no matter how many homes get bulldozed. If they don't want a bad story in the newspaper, it doesn't get written.

That's an interesting way to make a point - because it does happen in this country.

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My wrap up...

Nothing about the drilling moratorium and why it last lasted in excess of 6 months.
Nothing about states and city governments that have overspent.
He is going to freeze spending while making investments in education and trasportation.

If I had to come up with a theme for the speech, it would be whatever the problem - crumbling infrastructure, deficits, immigration, etc - government will fix it. We are exhorted to do very little, if anything. We can only achieve if government assists (he mentioned NASA, internet). We can have health care only if the government steps in and helps.

What he doesn't get is that WE are the engine of the country - not government. The economy is suffereing because the engine that has ran the country is being taken out of the car and replaced with a new shiny engine that's low on function and high on cost - sort of like an internal combustion engine being replaced by a South Korean hybrid engine.

[DRob4JC]

Originally Posted by Jill61

Can you point to where in the healthcare legislation this stipulation is, please?

Not being able to decline coverage due to pre-existing conditions isn't the same as not being able to drop an insured due to lack of premium payment.

OK - then the person looks in the phone book for the next insurance company on the list. The new company can't deny coverage can they? So the person is getting coverage from the new company before having paid into the system.

[Mircea]

Originally Posted by ray1945

The market has been going up (not up and down) for 5 months. The economy, which is reflected in the stock market, has to revive before jobs can be created and that IS happening.

Then please explain in nauseating detail why the stock market crashed between 1937 and 1942 while the economy was growing an average of 12.5% per quarter.

When you finish with that, you can explain why the stock market set new record highs during the recession 1959-61 and then crashed when the economy was growing at 5+% per quarter.

And when you finish with that, I'll give you a dozen other times when the stock market crashed while the economy was soaring or the stock market was soaring while the economy was crashing.

That pretty much blows your theory that the economy is reflected in the market.

The only thing the market reflects is where some investors believe they'll make money, and that doesn't have anything to do with the economy, because if you had invested in Proctor & Gamble stock during the Great Depression, you'd have made lots of money.

But had you invested in other stocks, you'd have lost your shirt, and your car and your house.

[sanrene]

Charles K has it right once again;

Deaf on debt: Returning to old liberal ideas, President Obama ignores the American people

Apart from the irony of this appeal being made by the very President who has just killed NASA's manned space program, there is the fact that for three decades, since Jimmy Carter's synfuel fantasy, Washington has poured billions of taxpayer dollars down a rat hole in vain pursuit of economically competitive renewable energy.

This is true. We have been "investing" billions in the "green" economy and so far the results haven't met the hyperbole.

Here's another bit of pap obama was spewing;

A time when you "didn't always need a degree, and your competition was pretty much limited to your neighbors," and if you "worked hard, chances are you'd have a job for life, with a decent paycheck and good benefits and the occasional promotion. Maybe you'd even have the pride of seeing your kids work at the same company."

Really? Is that really what most people would wish for their children? I think they would aspire for their kids to rise above and beyond. See, he's just spouting ridiculous verbiage because his speech writers THINK it sounds good. If you actually take it apart, it makes little sense.