By Nancy Thorner -
So much has already been written about President Barack Obama's Third State of the Union Address on the night of Tuesday, January 24, that, as a recipient, I now have an excess of information within me that I must widdle down. As I sat down to write an article, foremost in my mind was what I might say of worth that could add to what Illinois Review readers likewise have been able to discern from post-speech blogs and articles, some dissecting word-by-word President Obama 7,000 word speech.
As posted by Eric Erickson on Wednesday, January 25, John F. Kennedy said, "Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." Continuing, Erickson wrote, "Instead Barack Obama's State of the Union was all about informing the American people that the government is going to do everything for you, and when unable to keep its promises, it will take from the successful and give to you."
President Obama's fairness doctrine was exhibited and put on display for all to observe when he invited the secretary of Warren Buffet to sit next to his wife, Michelle, who displayed the opposite of fairness when she showed up in outlandishly expensive $35,000 designer dress fit for a queen.
It is not that Buffet's secretary was reduced to eating dog food after paying more taxes on her salary than her employee. It has been reported that secretary Debbie Busanek's likely salary is between $200,000 to $500,000. I'm sure she is living quite well on what she earns.
As with the deviousness and deception that ran throughout Obama's address, Buffet's secretary was invited with one goal in mind, as a means to raise the unfairness of the tax code put in place by Republicans, which taxes individual income from capital gains and dividends at a lower rate than earned income from salaries.
President Obama seems indifferent to Mitt Romney's $3.2 million payment to the IRS or his charitable giving of $400 million (15% of his income). By contrast Obama, so generous in spending taxpayer money, donated a shameful 1% of his income.
With President Obama's usual swagger and flippant attitude he informed the American people, "Let's never forget. Millions of Americans who work hard and play by the rules every day deserve a government and a financial system that do the same. It's time to apply the same rules from top to bottom."
How can President Obama with a straight face tell hard-working Americans that they are not paying their "fair share" when it was revealed on Wednesday, January 24 that forty one of Obama's White House aides owe $831,000 in back taxes?
Even if all the wealth were confiscated from the richest members of America's society, it would barely make a dent in this nation's deficit. Obama has created $5 trillion in debt in less than four years and his on his way to $6 trillion.
Rush Limbaugh informed listeners on his Thursday, January 26, WLS-AM radio show, that all total there are 8,274 individuals in the U.S. who earn over $10 million a year. The combined incomes of all 8,274 individuals with earnings of $10 million, adds up to $240 billion, which is only enough to fund government for eighteen days!
It was during Obama's first State of the Union speech that he promised: "My administration has begun to go line-by line though the federal budget in order to eliminate wasteful and ineffective spending."
How then did the $400 million Solyndra boondoggle taxpayer handout slip through the bureaucratic cracks, signed on to by the Obama administration on day one, after the previous Bush administration rejected the request to do likewise? Reported recently is that hundreds of other government-sponsored solar project went bust like Solyndra.
Michelle Malkin posted an informative bog post on Wednesday, January 25, Obama's Green Robber Barons, in which she noted that besides Solyndra, the controlling Barons of Beacon Power, Spectra Watt, and Nevada Geothermal reaped in an obscenely unfair share of billions of tax dollars through their ties to the Obama administration. Michelle Malkin made this astute remark about fairness: "Fairness is in the eye of the wealth distributor." http//michellemalkin.com/
In the fantasy world in which the Obama administration resides, where government is thought to be able to accomplish whatever it desires if it spends enough of your hard earned tax dollars, dreams are being pursued to eliminate pollution and squalor by promoting wind, solar, and batteries as viable, green energy sources to meet this nation's increasing energy needs. These pipe dream, pie-in-the-sky sources of energy are only profitable to investors because of generous government subsidies. They were further touted to produce thousands of green jobs.
It is hokum for President Obama to envision the creation of thousands of green from investment in solar and wind. A study commissioned by the University of Juan Carlos and the Juan de Mariana Institute in 2009 tells another story. The result of the study indicates that despite committing 28,671 million Euros (or approximately $37 billion in U.S. dollars), "for every green job that is attempted to be created, there is a 2.2 destruction of the resources that on average the private sector employs per worker."
http://www.gresshasissues.com/2010/03/green-jobs-flop-spain/#axzz1PpxPwfI6 <http://www.gresshasissues.com/2010/03/green-jobs-flop-spain/#axzz1PpxPwfI6> ; http://www.juandemariana.org/pdf/090327-employment-public-aid-renewable.pdf <http://www.juandemariana.org/pdf/090327-employment-public-aid-renewable.pdf> -- University of Juan Carlos and the Juan deMariana Institute
The green energy fantasy that the Obama administration has unquestionably and whole-heartedly adopted and embraced, as has Europe, rests upon the hoax of man-made Global Warming, as peddled by Global Warming alarmist Al Gore, who is still waiting for the oceans to rise and for the earth to heat up to ravish the planet as he beckons all to heed his urgent call.
The determination of the Obama administration to replace fossil fuels with green energy sources came to fruition last year when the EPA mandated CO2 as a pollutant, citing oil and coal as the main culprits, without which plant life cannot survive.
How proud President Obama was when reveling in the success of his GM bailout, using, as he did, GM as the "poster boy" of American car makers. It matters not that GM was bailed out by government (taxpayers) to the tune of billions of dollars. By the way, our government still owns 25% of GM contrary to statements made to the contrary in advertising.
GM, in following the guidelines set by the government ownership, developed the Volt, a green car that was going to light fires in a less than fertile car market.
And how did the Volt fare in the public arena? GM can make the Volt, but Americans cannot be forced to buy the green GM car. Volt car sales have been a dismal failure.
A rather feisty hearing was held on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, January 16, in regard to the unexplained engine fires that have started unprompted when the Volt was at rest. I'm sure future hearings and scrutiny will pursue over the unexplained Volt malfunction.
My veins ran cold when listening to Obama's unconvincing patter about the need for an national energy policy. It was when Obama called for more oil and gas production that I knew President Obama wasn't really serious.
What about Obama's recent rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline that would have limited this nation's dependence on oil from unfriendly countries instead of from our neighbor to the north, Canada? The Keystone XL pipeline would have delivered Canadian oil to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico.
Incidentally, in blocking the Keystone XL pipeline project, Obama enriched the wealth of his friend Warren Buffet. It so happens that Buffet owns the Burlington Northern Santa Fe LLC which transports 75% of the oil currently shipped by rail out of North Dakota.
Obama, the self-proclaimed savior of the middle class, scuttled thousands of well paying jobs by opposing the Keystone XL pipeline, choosing to please instead the environmental "greenies" over union approval of the pipeline, even though environmental groups and union represent a steady pipeline of campaign money to Democrats
Although Obama's State of the Union offered many promises from past addresses that remain unfulfilled, I noticed several important omissions.
It is not surprising that Obama failed to mention TARP or his Stimulus bill. But then why would he? Both failed, despite huge infusions of money meant to create jobs and jump start the economy. Instead, they became slush funds for the Obama administration to pick winners and losers in a game of political payback.
Also unmentioned was Obamacare, recognized by President Obama as not popular with the American people.
Not understood is why Obama failed to acknowledge the presence of still recovering Gabriel Giffords (D-Arizona), who since then has tendered her resignation from the U.S. House, or Senator Mark Kirk's (R-IL) absent in the Chambers after suffering a stroke in close proximity to Obama's address.
What was perhaps the most irritating moment in Obama sixty-five minute speech came toward the end when he told the American people:
"Any one who tells you otherwise, anyone who tells you that America is in decline or that our influence has waned, doesn't know what they're talking about. That's not the message we get from leaders around the world."
The Pew Research Center in May of last year reported that both the U.S. favorability rating and confidence in Obama has fallen sharply since 2009.
Regarding an America in decline, decline can also be measured by the amount of the debt being racked up that will impact future generations, along with a nation's unemployment level.
According to the Heritage Foundation, "The unemployment rate currently stands at 8.5 percent. In December of 2011 200,000 jobs were added," but as Heritage Foundation's James Shark writes, "At that pace, the unemployment rate will not return to normal levels (or 5.2 %) for four and a half years -- not until September 2016." http://blog.heritage.org/2012/01/24/state-of-the-union-2012-heritage...
Regarding this nation's debt, how can our nation not face bankruptcy given its reckless spending and borrowing? It matters not that Obama's policies have nearly doubled the debt over just three years since taking office in 2008, Obama's child-like response is to blame the Bush administration for his own irresponsible policies that have fostered trillions of additional debt.
Certainly Obama can't run on his record of stewardship. Taking the nation from a $5 billion debt on the way to $6 trillion in four years is not a record he can defend.
Although Obama decried the obstructionism of Republicans in Congress for blocking his initiatives to create jobs and stimulate the economy, in truth, Republican in the House have proposed many solutions, all of which were never taken up in Senate, blocked as they were by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).
Understandably absent was any criticism by Obama of his Democrat-controlled Senate for not having passed a budget in over 1,000 days, which is Senate's basic duty.
In that Obama has a majority in the Senate, much of what Obama desires in legislation could be passed by the Senate. How convenient it is for Obama to blame the Do-Nothing Congress (basically Republicans) for his inability to pass legislation that would help the middle class, and then using his dishonesty as a means to convince the American people that he could offer them relief if only those nasty Republicans didn't stand in the way.
Obama's address was heavy on class warfare, commitment to raising taxes, increasing regulations, establishing more government agencies -- coupled with warmed-up failed policies -- that aptly reflect Obama's extreme leftist ideology which would result in a fundamentally changed country.
It has been disputed that President Obama is a devotee of Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radical" and that Alinsky's rules are being exhibited through the thrust of Obama's policies and Executive decisions.
As a sweetener to those Americans who can be fooled by misleading rhetoric, Obama has presented himself as a president hard at work for the middle class who needs four more years to finish his job.
But the American people are hurting, President Barack Obama! While your family is taking extravagant vacations and you and Michelle are enjoying a lifestyle that befits a king and queen, the American people are suffering with much belt-tightening taking place. But not so for your family!
So far during Obama's presidency the price of a gallon of gasoline has jumped 83%, the price of ground beef by 4% and the price of bacon by 22 percent. The American people so far haven't blamed Obama for the high gas prices at the pump (but why not?) as they did former President President George W. Bush.
Of concern is a present discussion among oil producers about withdrawing the dollar as the unit value for oil. If acted upon, it would prove devastating for the American economy.
Heavy-handed government regulations and the threat of tax increases only creates uncertainty that keeps employers from hiring and entrepreneurs from launching new businesses.
Indicated by Obama's State of the Union address is how little Obama actually understands, based on reality, about the State of the Union.
Obama, in previewing his address the weekend before its presentation, said: "We can go in two directions. One is towards less opportunity and less fairness. Or we can fight for...building an economy that works for everyone, not just a wealthy few." http://blog.heritage.org/2012/01/24/state-of-the-union-2012-heritage...
European governments are collapsing due to policies they can no longer sustain. Yet Obama remains unfazed on his ruling pathway and is well along the way to taking this nation down the same route as has befallen Greece and Spain.
Personally, I am scared of the possibility that the American people will select the second option. This nation cannot weather another four years of President Obama with policies that are akin to the failed socialist policies of Europe, with Obama's added promise that he will go it alone through Executive Orders and rule by Czars if Congress refuses to go along with what his philosophy dictates is best for this nation.
