2011 State of the Union

The following are my alternate subtitles for last night's speech.  Take your pick.  Black and White and Red All Over, or Back to the Future, or Coyote Ugly.  In either case, this was not one of Barack Obama's finest moments.

Black and White and Red All Over, refers to the black and white lapel ribbons worn by everyone in the room to honor those who lost their lives in the tragic shooting in Tucson.  Apparently these are the colors that symbolize unity and hope for the Tucson community.  Red is for the the collective deficits run up by our nation, states, and local governments.  There's no joke here, it was just the first thing I thought of when I first saw that packed House chamber.

Back to the Future.  It wasn't long into the president's speech before I thought to myself, this all sounds very familiar.  In fact, the longer it went on it occurred to my that I have.  Bill Clinton made this same speech some twenty years ago.  President Clinton called for a hundred thousand new teachers.  Or was it cops?  Probably both.  President Clinton charged Vice President Al Gore to reinvent federal government, streamline its processes, root out waste and duplication, and modernize it to meet the needs of a new generation.  I don't think Mr. Gore was very successful and I don't believe President Obama, in this latest reiteration, will fair any better.  

I think it was also Bill Clinton who first recognized that the term "investments" is a better euphemism for more spending and higher taxes, its focus group tested and has become standard lexicon in the progressive arsenal.  Mr. Obama's much heralded march to the middle stops here.  You can't spend masses amounts of new money and expect the deficit to go down.  Unless perhaps you intend on massive cuts to offset the new spending, and once again Obama falls far short of that mark.  By the way, what has all this ramped up spending over the past twenty or more years gotten us?  According to the president, America lags the rest of the developed world in practically every indicator.  How come we have fallen behind?

President Obama said that this is our "Sputnik moment."  He spoke glowingly about President Kennedy's ambitious call in 1961 to land a man on the moon before the decade expired.  That goal was accomplished in just eight years.  Consider then Obama's goal of "80% of America's electricity will come from clean energy sources" by 2035.  That's twenty-five years from now.  That's really throwing down the gauntlet wouldn't you say?

As for increased spending on our nation's infrastructure, for my money, this was the best use of any of the stimulus funds.  At least we have tangible evidence by driving on smoother roads.  And there's no denying the fact that we need to maintain our roads, bridges, airports and power grid to keep up with the modern movement of goods and services that will attract additional job creation.  But let's agree to do it  without the yoke and chain of prevailing wage requirements set by Davis-Bacon.  This federal relic from the past artificially and unnecessarily inflates the price of public works, thereby limiting the amount of work that can be done.

My disingenuous meter lit up when the president announced his support to lower the corporate income tax.  It registered a little higher when he said that his administration had already made cuts to some of his favorite programs, such as community action groups.  Read ACORN here, and only because of the extreme blowback from the public.  But the one that really sent my meter into overdrive was his call, yet again, to veto any legislation with earmarks.  I suppose he thinks that if he repeats this canard often enough he just might grow a pair and actually do it.  I have thought for some time now that when words leave the mouth of Barack Obama, he no longer shares any ownership with them.

The whole "date night" aspect of the two parties sitting next to one another caused me to think Coyote Ugly, especially after seeing the shot of New York reps Anthony Weiner (D) and Peter King (R) sitting together.  These two were obviously not digging each others' company.  While Sen. Marco Rubio's (FL-R) date was fellow Floridian Sen. Bill Nelson (D), on the other side of Rubio sat Sen. Al Franken (MN-D).  Just guessing, but I bet Al Franken felt more like his SNL character Stuart Smalley during the speech.  His running affirmation being, "Because I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and, doggonit, the courts said I won the election."