The Real State of Our Union
Prepare yourself. If history serves as any guide, we're in for a solid hour of State of the Union tonight. That's about how long the President has spoken before when he delivered this stump speech, I mean message to Congress.
Here's a guide to the event: starting with the words and phrases he might use that require a little explaining.
You no doubt know that when the President says "fair" or "fair share" look out because he's really talking about tax hikes. Likewise, "sacrifice" "balanced" and "compromise", well those words are all about getting to the same issue- higher taxes.
Some of the words he uses mean the opposite of the textbook definition. For example, "affordable" in reference to the Affordable Healthcare Act was anything but affordable. In the same way, "gun safety" means "gun control."
"Children and grandchildren" are the people picking up the tab, while references to "investment" means special bennies for administration supporters like Unions and green energy companies.
It's not just the words the President uses that are likely to be confusing. He will also most likely make promises about the future. We looked back at some of the previous promises he's made and that didn't go so well.
For example, during his first State of the Union in 2009 he pledged to cut the deficit in half. Did that happen? Nope. Instead, Obama averaged deficits nearly three times that of his predecessor.
He promised his stimulus plan would create 3.5 million jobs, yet the economy is 7.7 million jobs in the hole.
The President promised quality and affordable healthcare for every American. Remember Obamacare? But the CBO says that 30 million Americans will remain uninsured even after the law is fully implemented. It’s not making the system more efficient.
In fact, the law is going to take 127 million hours of paperwork each year for Americans to comply with. Improve your care? Not a chance. Not only will you not be able to keep your doctor, you may have no doctor at all. The news this week is that there aren't enough doctors to fulfill the demands of Obamacare, and well, you might have to settle for a nurse.
And finally, the President promised $15 billion of taxpayer dollars would go to more green energy technologies that would make our lives better. Instead, the government spent $2.6 billion on companies that went bankrupt. Nineteen ventures funded by our money failed. Solyndra, Abound Solar, Beacon Power, Ener1… I could go on and on.
In reality, the theme of the President's first administration was spending taxpayer dollars. I don't expect the second to be far off that mark.