Bush Gives his Last State of the Union Address; Democrats Show Their Collective Asses
President Bush has given his last State of the Union speech before Congress. This was not a particularly strong speech on areas like
President Bush wants to make the tax relief passed in 2001 permanent. Unsurprisingly, the Dems sat on their hands.
President Bush said he veto any spending bill which included any more than half the earmarks passed last year. He also stated that he would order his government through an Exectutive Order not to spend money on those earmarks added in committee and after the vote had already been taken in Congress. Interestingly the Dems sat on their hands and they did not even offer an applause at this innovative plan. Makes you wonder how serious the Democrats were when they came into Washington with the promise of ending the practice of earmarks—a promise they have not only failed to keep, but they plainly broke it by passing even more earmarks.
An interesting objective of the President is to expand Pell Grants to help school kids leave failing schools. It might just work. Dems once again just sat on their hands.
Another interesting objective of President Bush is reworking Social Security. In the past he has tried repeatedly to reform this failing entitlement program with little success because Democrats have continually blocked all his efforts. During last year’s State of the Union Address, the Democrats obscenely stood and cheered their own success in blocking Bush’s efforts to fix Social Security. So this year President Bush wants Congress to offer their own ideas on how to fix Social Security. I wonder what the Dems will offer other than higher taxes.
There is one bit of political theatre which bore a striking contrast to that of the President—that is the behavior of the Democrats who tried (unsuccessfully) to walk a fine line between supporting the troops, but not their mission. They say they support the US, but not liberty. They say they support the sacrifice of our troops, but they do not want to give them what they need to win. Time after time the Dems cheered the troops, but sat on their hands when President Bush talked about freedom, democracy, liberty, victory in Iraq, defeating al-Queda. The Dems sat on their hands when the President talked about giving the troops what they need to win, the need to keep the terrorists on the run, telling Iran to stop funding the terrorists, and renewing the Terrorist Surveillance Acts. I do not know how the Democrats can possibly believe there is a difference between supporting the troops and supporting their mission. The two are irrevocably linked. The Dems showed their asses and their lack of commitment to the troops.
An interesting sideline to all of this political theatre is Hillary Clinton. She looked absolutely bored. When the cameras showed her standing, clapping, or just sitting there; Hillary looked like she wanted to be somewhere else.
The Democrat response to the President’s speech by the Governor of Kansas showed a severe disconnect with reality. She seemed to insinuate that most Americans are too stupid to understand if it matters whether both Dems and Republicans stood when the President made an important point. Let me make this perfectly clear–Governor, it matters and it matters a lot. She then mentioned all of the Democrat talking points: minimum wage, global warming, and bringing the troops home. She seemed to propose a global group hug to solve all of our problems with other nations and that big government is the answer to everything. One really weird thing she said was that the greatest generation is the one to come, which will only come to some with the practice of abortion. There were also veiled hints on raising taxes. In spite of saying this was not going to be a Republican verses Democrat speech, it was just that—at very partisan speech.
All in all, it was a very good speech by George W. Bush. Now all we need is for the Democrats to cooperate. (Hey, quit laughing, it could happen)
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