President Obama’s State of the Union address was familiar to most Americans, repackaging precisely the rhetoric he used during his successful campaign for the presidency. It was completely foreign, however, to the reality of how he, Carol Shea-Porter, and the Democratic Congress have governed during the past year. There is no evidence that any of them have listened to the clear call of the American people to bring about the change we want, rather than the change they have tried to force upon us.
In his speech, the President decried an atmosphere “where every day is Election Day.” Yet he reflexively returned to casting blame upon the prior administration for creating a disaster from which he claims to have saved us through his “immediate and aggressive” action. The President should cease his obsessive focus on the last “eight years” and concentrate on the three years ahead of him by working with Republicans in a truly bi-partisan fashion. Honest disagreements cannot be reconciled simply by stating “I won.”
The President promised to make “tough decisions” to reign in the unprecedented budget deficits which are causing our national debt to spiral out of control. Yet his first year in office with a pliant Congress has been marked by a non-stop campaign to swell projected deficits to such heights that our national debt will double in five years, and triple in ten. This has occurred through a $787 billion stimulus bill that unequivocally failed to keep his promise that unemployment would stay below 8%; his relentless advocacy for a health care bill that would cost more than $1 trillion; and turning a blind eye to the thousands of wasteful congressional earmarks which he suddenly decried anew after more than a year of silence.
As he did before his election, the President criticized both the effects of lobbying and horse trading in the formation of public policy. Yet the monstrosity of a health care bill that he pledged tonight to continue attempting to force upon an unwilling American people will forever stand as a monument to these practices: built upon a foundation of special deals cut behind closed doors with every interest group imaginable and plastered with corrupt payoffs to buy support for the legislation, such as the “Louisiana Purchase” and the “Cornhusker Kickback.”
Finally, the President promised to focus, as he rightly should, on restoring economic prosperity and the creation of sustainable jobs. Yet during 2009, when more than 3 million real jobs were actually lost, the President’s signature economic policy, the $787 billion stimulus bill, has yielded little to no evidence of producing a fraction of the mythical 2 million jobs “created or saved,” a figure which not even his closest advisors can agree upon or document.
The American people elect a President not to give great speeches or run well managed campaigns, but to provide effective leadership in solving difficult issues of national importance. The sad truth of the first year of his presidency is that President Obama continues to prove masterful at the former, but has been unwilling to focus on the latter.
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