I had previously said that it would be Wednesday morning before I posted this, however both sides made it easy this year. I am going to give my thoughts on the Presidents State of the Union Address tonight as well as the response by Republican Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers. I am not going to get into a point by point coverage of either as that will be done by the fact checking sites and pundits all over the Internet before I can even finishing typing this message. First, new members of Congress should be given an etiquette class on how to behave at these events. You know the camera will be on you at some point, dont look bored. You are the Speaker of the House and the Vice President of the United States, stop the school room chatter and giggles behind the Presidents back during the speech! President Obama is a gifted orator, probably the best since Ronald Reagan who was a professional actor, and this was one of the better speeches he has delivered. He gave the impression, unlike last year, that he truly believed the message that he was conveying which was one of hope and continued improvement. He gave a lot of detail about what his goals for the coming year are without giving much detail about how he plans to achieve them other than to tell the members of Congress to Get er done! From the last few years, we know that just telling Congress during an address to pass certain legislation is not an indication that any progress will actually be made within Congress to do so. He mentioned at several times how much bipartisan government is important while also qualifying it with the fact that he will do whatever he has to even if they dont do it. I took this as a reference towards his willingness to use the Executive Order privilege to bypass an uncooperative congress. I can see how Congress could view that same attitude as an unwillingness to work with them on reaching a compromise as well. Better healthcare, tax reform to give incentives for jobs returning to the U.S, better education, better availability of education, better jobs, opportunity for all, equal treatment under health care, student loan reform, an end to the Afghanistan war would be great but weve been told that before. These are all great goals, I approve of them, where is the how of accomplishing them? It was a powerful tactic to make sure that every everyman mentioned by name was in the room and the camera was on them while he mentioned them. The Republicans made a good choice in selecting a female conservative who is relatively unknown on a national scale to deliver their message with their current womans issues problems. Cathy McMorris Rodgers delivered a message that said basically The President has the same goals we do but his methods cant get us there. Trust in us, trust in God, and well fix it. Both sides confirmed for me that there is a fundamental divide in the ideology of how to improve the country. Democrats want to achieve their stated goals by providing tax payer funded services to reinvigorate the middle class. Republicans want to achieve the same goals by eliminating as many restrictions on business as possible and let God sort everything out. Neither side has any intention of giving ground on their ideological stance any time soon, so any chance of compromise is shot. My view is that going into this year, we are looking at another year of bipartisan obstructionism. This is however an election year, and I see a few outcomes from that. 1) The voters maintain a status quo in the House and Senate, and they continue to dance around each other without getting anything accomplished until an Executive Order is signed. 2) The voters give control of the House and Senate to the Republicans, and the President spends most days vetoing everything that reaches his desk. 3) The voters give control of the House and Senate to the Democrats and the President and Congress spend the last two years of his presidency passing just about any law they want without a check and balance from the representatives of nearly 50% of the voting population. Both parties want to get to the same end goal, but theyre so intent on preventing the other side from getting there with them that neither are making any forward progress. Adversarial government instead of cooperative leadership will be our undoing.
Posted on: Wed, 29 Jan 2014 05:45:54 +0000
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