Just finished watching Bush give his final STOU and it was a good one. I loved the line “The IRS takes checks and money orders” to those who say they would be glad to pay the higher tax once those tax cuts expire. Nice! And it’s the truth. You don’t mind paying higher taxes then send your damn money in. Myself, I want to keep as much of what I earn as possible….but thats just me.
His line in the sand about vetoing a bill that raises taxes was outstanding also. His demands for cutting the earmarks into half, awesome!
“We must confront global climate change.”….not so awesome. Bleh.
I have to admit his entitlement riff was right on also. He put up his proposals to fix Social Security and Immigration, don’t like it? Then put up your own and do something about it instead of talk talk talk talk and talk:
There are two other pressing challenges that I have raised repeatedly before this body, and that this body has failed to address: entitlement spending and immigration.
Every Member in this chamber knows that spending on entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid is growing faster than we can afford. And we all know the painful choices ahead if America stays on this path: massive tax increases, sudden and drastic cuts in benefits, or crippling deficits. I have laid out proposals to reform these programs. Now I ask Members of Congress to offer your proposals and come up with a bipartisan solution to save these vital programs for our children and grandchildren.
As usual, disagreed with him mightedly about immigration reform, but no surprise there.
A few moments during the speech sticks with me tho, Sheila Jackson-Lee greeting the President of our nation with a “”How are you doing, my brother!”…..disrespectful and disgusting.
The next is when the Democrats stayed sitting when Bush said the following:
Last month, Osama bin Laden released a tape in which he railed against Iraqi tribal leaders who have turned on al Qaida and admitted that Coalition forces are growing stronger in Iraq. Ladies and gentlemen, some may deny the surge is working, but among the terrorists there is no doubt. Al Qaida is on the run in Iraq, and this enemy will be defeated.
No standing o for stating that our enemy, our common enemy, is on the run and will be defeated by our greatest and brightest?
Disgusting.
On FISA:
In the past 6 years, we have stopped numerous attacks, including a plot to fly a plane into the tallest building in Los Angeles and another to blow up passenger jets bound for America over the Atlantic. Dedicated men and women in our Government toil day and night to stop the terrorists from carrying out their plans. These good citizens are saving American lives, and everyone in this chamber owes them our thanks. And we owe them something more: We owe them the tools they need to keep our people safe.
One of the most important tools we can give them is the ability to monitor terrorist communications. To protect America, we need to know who the terrorists are talking to, what they are saying, and what they are planning. Last year, the Congress passed legislation to help us do that. Unfortunately, the Congress set the legislation to expire on February 1. This means that if you do not act by Friday, our ability to track terrorist threats would be weakened and our citizens will be in greater danger. The Congress must ensure the flow of vital intelligence is not disrupted. The Congress must pass liability protection for companies believed to have assisted in the efforts to defend America. We have had ample time for debate. The time to act is now.
Damn right.
And he ends with a bang!
The secret of our strength, the miracle of America, is that our greatness lies not in our Government, but in the spirit and determination of our people. When the Federal Convention met in Philadelphia in 1787, our Nation was bound by the Articles of Confederation, which began with the words, “We the undersigned delegates.” When Gouverneur Morris was asked to draft the preamble to our new Constitution, he offered an important revision and opened with words that changed the course of our Nation and the history of the world: “We the people.”
By trusting the people, our Founders wagered that a great and noble Nation could be built on the liberty that resides in the hearts of all men and women. By trusting the people, succeeding generations transformed our fragile young democracy into the most powerful Nation on earth and a beacon of hope for millions. And so long as we continue to trust the people, our Nation will prosper, our liberty will be secure, and the State of our Union will remain strong. So tonight, with confidence in freedom’s power, and trust in the people, let us set forth to do their business.
Bravo Mr. President…..Bravo!
Oh, one more time…..
UPDATE
Via Gateway Pundit, some video of the War on Terror part of his speech:
And I’ll let Gateway put up his remarks on the response from Democrats:
Governor Kathleen Sebelius is giving the rebuttal speech from the Kansas State House.
–Americans are losing their jobs(?) 5% unemployment -lower than the Clinton years?
Will you join us, Mr. President?We’re ready to chart a new course— If Republicans join us we can claim defeat.
We have fewer allies. (Who????? Name one!)
We can transform America.
We need to share sacrifices and share prosperity–
Tonight’s call for SOCIALISM.
Just so typical from the Democrats.
See author page
Most pundits were expecting this Address to be little more than a formality. President Bush did not sound like this was the last State of the Union Address. He is just not lying down and quitting like he’s supposed to do. Good for him and good for us.
Read the entire Address at
http://furtheradventuresofindigored.blogspot.com/2008/01/state-of-union-address-2008.html
The President’s speech tonight showed why I will miss him mightily when he leaves office. He’s a true patriot in every sense of the word.
As for the Dems who sat on their hands as the President commended our troops, I hope everyone took stock of it. They deserve our gratitude and thanks everyday.
I wish I could say I was surprised at the actions of the left tonight (i.e. sitting on their hands as David pointed out). Unfortunately, I am not surprised. Disgusted, as usual, by the antics of the left, yes, surprised, no.
Earmarks ?? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earmarks
2005 budget 27.3 billion
2006 budget 29.0 billion
2007 budget 13.2 billion (first under Democrats)
Hey look everybody, Slow John is happy about 9,000 earmarks. What a bang up job you guys did in Congress this year John….way to go!
Did you guys hear that soldier shout “HOORAH!” after one of the applause lines?
Probably not the smartest thing to do with the Joint Chiefs sitting there in the front row.
I miss the spectacle of the speech when I was a resident of D.C. living on Capitol Hill. They close off streets for blocks, but you can go down and stand on the street and take in the scene as the motorcades pull up.
And they bring in banks of high powered stadium lights and flood the Capitol Dome with even MORE light.
Ain’t nothing wrong with a “Hoorah”. The current JCS are pretty much with it, we’ve got great soldiers and they, better than anyone else, know that. I’m sure the JCS guys give out a “Hurrah” every now and then themselves, especially when speaking to soldiers.
I had to catch the replay on MSNBC. Listening to the after-action report given by Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann and interviewing Joe Biden…..good grief! They’re so full of it.
The eighth paragaph is the start of the meat.
I have issues with the 9th paragraph. $1,800 average savings? I’m thinking he is using the 25% of the households that are making over $57,343 a year. I’m thinking that number is way out of context when he says 116 million people and then uses the word average. I don’t believe 75% of the households even saw $1,000 is savings. Mine came out to $200-$300.
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/SavingandDebt/P134742.asp?GT1=7392
That’s true, you can send money to directly pay off the national debt. He should have spent more time on that. Something like $100 million a year comes from such donors. There is a special way you have to do it.
Send checks or money order (made out to Bureau of the Public Debt) here:
Attn Dept G
Bureau Of the Public Debt
P. O. Box 2188
Parkersburg, WV 26106-2188
That information is buried and you have to know it’s there to find it. When I actually “overpaid” the IRS, they gave me my money back with interest. I guess another way to do it is to buy government bonds and then never cash them. Also note that the debt is the only thing you can directly fund.
I believe paragraph 10 is a lie. The $18 billion cuts in earmarks might be trueful, but the mass amount of cutting (which won’t happen) and tax increases just to break even would prevent any surplus without massive accounting tricks (like hiding it behind Social Security and Medicare funding).
Paragraph 11 is wishful thinking. That $18 billion might not be reduced, but instead made more public. For instance those things realted to crop disease, infrastructure projects and defense (such as buying C-17s which were originally listed as earmarks) will probably still get funding. It also will do little to offset the offical deficit let alone the deficit when taking away all the accounting tricks. Then there might be even more of a deficit of the next president decides to expand the war on terror as in invading a country suc as Syria or Sudan.
Paragraph 12 is misleading. 30% of the home buyers were offical flippers that just walked away when things went south. The average forclosure rate was something like 20% and not much can be done with this group except to just give them the house for free or get them well paying jobs even if they are fully disabled. Now the other 50% is going to be hard. Chances are the majority might only get by if they are never sick, always have jobs and the interest rate was zero percent. You can look at this with the 2 1/2 rule (taught at my former high school). A house is affordable when it’s 2 1/2 times your annual income. So if you make $40,000 a year you can afford a $100,000 home. That means 75% of all U.S. households could not afford a house costing more than $145,000. So who is going to make up the difference between what they could afford and what they bought the house for? Nobody.
Paragraph 13 doesn’t make sense to me. Choice? Hospitals are closing where I live and in California there is a patient limit. Once the patient limit is reached the hospital can’t take more patients. There is little choice when it comes to service and insurance programs. Insurance companies compete to cut costs which might not serve the patient. The insurance companies can refuse to pay for drugs or a treatment that works for you. I believe this paragraph should have been deleted because there is really little choice when it comes to health care and insurance.
Finally something to cheer about in paragraphs 14 and 15.
Paragraph 16 should have been deleted, especially with all the “illegal” subsidized products including paying farmers not to grow crows or selling water at a discount to farmers so they can sell the water back to the cities for more money. Also the U.S. is a service industry with films and music being the top two exports.
Paragraphs 17-19 are good ones although 19 is shaky on the conservative front (government getting involved in retraining.)
Paragraph 20 is good. This idea should have been stressed on what is being done now and how well it’s doing and how long it’s going to take at the present rate to get to what Bush sees as total independence from oil. I think it would have been a good idea to help industry with the proper infrastructure. Let’s say you want to make a hydogen ran car (something Bush was looking at in his first few yars in office). But sadly no gas station will supply hydrogen untill there is a mass amount of hydrogen ran cars on the road. Nobody wants to have hydrogen ran cars because there is no place to fill up. The federal government should step in even if they have to put the fill up stations for alternative fuels on all federal property. The federal government could actually profit from this.
Paragaph 21 is strange. The American Competitiveness Initiative funding was $5.9 billion ($1.3 billion in new Federal funding, and an additional $4.6 billion in R&D tax incentives for 2006). He says the funding was lacking. I’m guessing people didn’t take the tax breaks because he want’s congress to actually fund the project to I’m guessing $2.6 billion. Generally anything funded by the government becomes property of the government, which is why I’m guess any tax breaks not taken were due to this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Competitiveness_Initiative
Paragraph 22 is way out in crazy land. Not only is slavery forbidden in the U.S. already, the final sentences stumble on fertility drugs which are known to cause mutiple births like twins which is the best you can do as far as cloning goes. The Nazis already proved that sci-fi cloning (where two or more people look and think alike can be made) is impossible with all those experments they did on twins.
Ah back to reality with paragraphs 23-25.
Paragraph 27 should have been deleted. I would be surprised there wasn’t one senator that didn’t lay out a plan for Social Security, Medicare and Medicate already.
Paragraph 28 has problems. The problem isn’t boarder patrol agents, but the shortage of judges. Yep, every illegal alien as a “right” to a fair and speedy trial for breaking the law in the U.S. The speedy part is the problem. Instead of being handled right there, the illegals are often let go on their own to appear in court later, but then they never show up. Also those that spend time in holding if it takes too long to see a judge, they are let go.
Paragraph 29 has that “We are the government and we are here to help you” vibe.
Paragraphs 30+ are good.
LOL, a guy from California rants about houses that cost $100,000.
Decent speech/coulda just been a cut/paste from his earlier ones. Best part about the speech was the Dem response and Dem candidates spin. Dem response could been CGI it was so stoic and immobile. Dem candidates repeated what W had just said as if it were new and their idea (perhaps they slept through the earlier SOTUs). All I kept thinking about when the candidates replied (D or R) was, “Gosh, you’ve got a plan for social security reform, tax reform, healthcare reform, a new energy policy etc. WHY DON’T YOU SUBMIT A BILL NOW, and why haven’t you done so in the previous years of your senate career?”
And I LOVED John Ryan’s comment about earmarks. Wrong numbers, and a classic attempt at the “Republicans are worse” theme. That works for people who care about this party or that, but I (and I think most Americans) don’t give a rat’s ass about what party does what. I want results, and if one party gets and F, then they’re removed from office, and the other party gets a D-…I still want the action. Perhaps John and other Democratic Party apologists are looking for a pat on the back? Well, just like I do for my dog. Here’s a good girl biscuit (power for 2yrs). Good job. That D- is a heckuva improvement. Great job. Roll over and I’ll rub your tummy. But in a 9 1/2 months, if you still crap in the yard and get a D- on earmarks….you’re off to the pound.
Great speech Mr President. It was good to hear something positive about our country after all the Bush bashing that the media does.
I never watch the MSM ‘after speech analysis’. I make up my own mind and come to my own conclusions.
Lilshaver- would that all people did as you do. Making up your own mind is essential to coming closer to the right answer.
The average price for a house where I live is $640,000. The average income is $40,000. So to help someone make the house “affordable” that household would have to be given $540,000. The asking price for the new homes in Idaho, near where my parents live, are $300,000-$400,000 and the average wage there is around $33,000. Any foreclosure help is going to be impossible unless it’s a major bailout. He should never have mentioned the foreclosure “crises” let alone promote a fix. The real fix to get households into actual houses (something that Bush mentioned in his speech) is when average price for a house drops down to $100,000 across the U.S. That would require a massive drop in prices which is out of government’s control.