Post by Bret Walker on Feb 1, 2006 9:37:52 GMT -5
The entire State of the Union address can be found here
And the Democrats' response to it can be found here
No surprise, Bush had a ton to say about the War on Terror. I'm glad he did manage to get in a few words about Coretta Scott King before the bulk of the speech. However, in his 5500+ word speech he gave only 165 words to New Orleans and Katrina Relief. That's downright disgraceful, but not surprising considering it's certainly a subject I'm sure he'd love to see swept under the rug. $10 billion in hurricane relief? Why not funnel some of the hundreds of billions that we're spending to rebuild IRAQ and spend it instead on rebuilding one of the proudest and most historic cities of our great nation? Bush also wants us to believe that our economy is strong on the heels of Ford's announcement that they will be closing 14 plants and eliminating 30,000 jobs by 2007. According to the latest approval rating poll, only 40% of us are buying it, but that's a lot of people buying a lot of bull.
I listened to last night's speech with the hope that it would give me some confidence in our illustrious leader, and there were in fact high points, such as Bush declaring our addiction to oil and our need to reduce dependence on foreign oil by 75% by the year 2025 - a very bold move by a Texas oil-man. I was impressed with his environmental rhetoric, and he very nearly pronounced "nuclear" correctly the second time around. Other than that, his address of the medical crisis in this country was yet another Republican "American Self Reliance" stance, putting the oweness of the problem on the shoulders of the working class with "Health Spending Accounts." Last year's address of the Social Security crisis was rehashed with the impending retirement of the Baby Boom generation - as if this were brand new news - with the same results and more self reliance. The Baby Boomers didn't ruin Social Security but apparently they have to fix it themselves by planning for their retirement better. And I had to laugh when Bush talked about putting together a "responsible" budget, one that would serve to halve the deficit by the year 2012. Did anyone remember that he doubled the deficit in his first two years of office? Yet he's content to pass the buck down to later generations, who will be paying for his spending indiscressions for decades to come.
I enjoyed the Democratic response to the State of the Union. I only wish the Dems would show more Chutspah and start beating the GOP when it's down. Tim Kaine's words were strong, and accentuated every Bush point with "There's a better way." But by and large, the Dems seem content to let the GOP shoot itself in the foot time and time again, without a plan to capitalize on the Republican penchant for self-destruction. And so here we sit in 2006, with a Republican president and a Republican congress, one that pushed through a TERRIBLE Supreme Court nomination in Samuel Alito.
So I guess it's more of the same. More overseas intervention and imposition, more ignorance of our issues at home, more money spent at the pump and more of a government doing even LESS for its citizens in need. Bully for you, George. Bully for you.
And the Democrats' response to it can be found here
No surprise, Bush had a ton to say about the War on Terror. I'm glad he did manage to get in a few words about Coretta Scott King before the bulk of the speech. However, in his 5500+ word speech he gave only 165 words to New Orleans and Katrina Relief. That's downright disgraceful, but not surprising considering it's certainly a subject I'm sure he'd love to see swept under the rug. $10 billion in hurricane relief? Why not funnel some of the hundreds of billions that we're spending to rebuild IRAQ and spend it instead on rebuilding one of the proudest and most historic cities of our great nation? Bush also wants us to believe that our economy is strong on the heels of Ford's announcement that they will be closing 14 plants and eliminating 30,000 jobs by 2007. According to the latest approval rating poll, only 40% of us are buying it, but that's a lot of people buying a lot of bull.
I listened to last night's speech with the hope that it would give me some confidence in our illustrious leader, and there were in fact high points, such as Bush declaring our addiction to oil and our need to reduce dependence on foreign oil by 75% by the year 2025 - a very bold move by a Texas oil-man. I was impressed with his environmental rhetoric, and he very nearly pronounced "nuclear" correctly the second time around. Other than that, his address of the medical crisis in this country was yet another Republican "American Self Reliance" stance, putting the oweness of the problem on the shoulders of the working class with "Health Spending Accounts." Last year's address of the Social Security crisis was rehashed with the impending retirement of the Baby Boom generation - as if this were brand new news - with the same results and more self reliance. The Baby Boomers didn't ruin Social Security but apparently they have to fix it themselves by planning for their retirement better. And I had to laugh when Bush talked about putting together a "responsible" budget, one that would serve to halve the deficit by the year 2012. Did anyone remember that he doubled the deficit in his first two years of office? Yet he's content to pass the buck down to later generations, who will be paying for his spending indiscressions for decades to come.
I enjoyed the Democratic response to the State of the Union. I only wish the Dems would show more Chutspah and start beating the GOP when it's down. Tim Kaine's words were strong, and accentuated every Bush point with "There's a better way." But by and large, the Dems seem content to let the GOP shoot itself in the foot time and time again, without a plan to capitalize on the Republican penchant for self-destruction. And so here we sit in 2006, with a Republican president and a Republican congress, one that pushed through a TERRIBLE Supreme Court nomination in Samuel Alito.
So I guess it's more of the same. More overseas intervention and imposition, more ignorance of our issues at home, more money spent at the pump and more of a government doing even LESS for its citizens in need. Bully for you, George. Bully for you.
