State of the Union speech falls flat
Mark Green
Issue date: 2/3/10 Section: Opinion
President Obama: During your campaign you stared into the eyes of 300 million Americans and lied to us repeatedly, so you will have to forgive me if I seem a little skeptical following your State of the Union address.
During your campaign you told us American troops would be out of Iraq by the end of 2009. It didn't happen. You promised the health care debate would be open and on C-Span. Then you moved it behind closed doors and cut Republicans out of the process. You promised to close Guantanamo Bay. It remains open. You made these assertions under the slogan "yes we can." As it turns out, no we can't.
It's because of these examples that I would like to go over some of the points in the State of the Union that I find problematic. Based on our current political climate, I think the economy is the logical place to begin.
"They (Americans) don't understand why it seems like bad behavior on Wall Street is rewarded, but hard work on Main Street isn't," Obama said during his address. The full text of the speech can be found at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/27/state-of-the-union-2010-full-text-transcript_n_439459.html. Obama went on to say that everybody, including himself, hated the bank bailout because it rewarded failure. If the Obama administration is opposed to rewarding failure, why did it bail out these banks? Wouldn't it have been more prudent to allow them to fail in order to encourage Wall Street to avoid risky policies?
Obama next discussed his proposed fee (code for an unconstitutional tax that borders on outright thievery) on the largest banks in order to recover the cost of this bail out. I was sickened to hear the thunderous applause that greeted this statement. I was sickened to see how popular the idea of robbing from the rich and giving to the poor has become. I was sickened to realize that our government believes profit should be punished with taxes, and failure should be rewarded with bailouts.
While many banks that either did not receive or have already repaid TARP loans are being hit with this tax, the chief culprits of the financial crisis are curiously exempt. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are two government-backed lending organizations that helped the government push to make all Americans homeowners whether they could afford it or not. They have been subsisting on tax dollars for years. Oddly enough, they are not going to be punished for helping to destroy our economy or misusing tax dollars.
During your campaign you told us American troops would be out of Iraq by the end of 2009. It didn't happen. You promised the health care debate would be open and on C-Span. Then you moved it behind closed doors and cut Republicans out of the process. You promised to close Guantanamo Bay. It remains open. You made these assertions under the slogan "yes we can." As it turns out, no we can't.
It's because of these examples that I would like to go over some of the points in the State of the Union that I find problematic. Based on our current political climate, I think the economy is the logical place to begin.
"They (Americans) don't understand why it seems like bad behavior on Wall Street is rewarded, but hard work on Main Street isn't," Obama said during his address. The full text of the speech can be found at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/27/state-of-the-union-2010-full-text-transcript_n_439459.html. Obama went on to say that everybody, including himself, hated the bank bailout because it rewarded failure. If the Obama administration is opposed to rewarding failure, why did it bail out these banks? Wouldn't it have been more prudent to allow them to fail in order to encourage Wall Street to avoid risky policies?
Obama next discussed his proposed fee (code for an unconstitutional tax that borders on outright thievery) on the largest banks in order to recover the cost of this bail out. I was sickened to hear the thunderous applause that greeted this statement. I was sickened to see how popular the idea of robbing from the rich and giving to the poor has become. I was sickened to realize that our government believes profit should be punished with taxes, and failure should be rewarded with bailouts.
While many banks that either did not receive or have already repaid TARP loans are being hit with this tax, the chief culprits of the financial crisis are curiously exempt. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are two government-backed lending organizations that helped the government push to make all Americans homeowners whether they could afford it or not. They have been subsisting on tax dollars for years. Oddly enough, they are not going to be punished for helping to destroy our economy or misusing tax dollars.
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