USA: The State of the Union

Last night President Barack Obama gave his State of the Union address, followed by Republican responses by Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Michelle Bachmann (R-MN). Everyone paid respect to Gabrielle Giffords. Also notable were people who did not attend. Paul Broun (R-GA) stayed away, but tweeted, “Mr. President, you don’t believe in the Constitution. You believe in socialism.” Equaling Broun in ignominious disrespect, the three most anti-constitutional Supreme Court Justices also boycotted the speech: Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. In this article, I have the complete video of all three speeches, my own in depth analysis of Obama’s speech and comments on the two Republican responses. Every speech contained at least one major lie.



Obama rightly said that Republicans and Democrats will have to move forward together or not at all. At several points throughout the speech he pointed to accomplishments from the last two years, but I prefer to concentrate just on his proposals.

He wants to eliminate subsidies for the oil industry and invest the savings in green energy. I fully agree. Boehner almost cried over that one.

He wants to make permanent the $10K tuition tax credit for four years of college. This idea does not go far enough, because it benefits only those families that pay $2,500 a year or more in taxes.

He wants to take on the immigration issue and alluded to the Dream Act. I agree, but need more specifics.

He wants build infrastructure, including giving 80% of Americans access to high speed rail and 90% of Americans access to the next generation of high speed wireless. I fully agree.

He wants to lower corporate tax rates by closing loopholes that favor some companies and industries. I’m cautious here. If ALL the loopholes are truly closed, especially those enable companies to evade taxes by keeping profits offshore, I would support it, because the most abusive corporations would actually pay more taxes.

He wants to review all government regulations, but create and enforce safeguards to protect the American people. I support the former, but only contingent on the latter.

He wants to freeze annual domestic spending for the next five years, without harming our most vulnerable citizens or cutting programs we cannot afford to do without. It sounds good in principle, but I don’t see how he can do so and build infrastructure too.

He wants medical malpractice reform for frivolous lawsuits. I’m OK with that as long as only frivolous lawsuits are impacted, and there are no caps on punitive damages.

He wants to strengthen Medicare and Social Security without cutting benefits or privatization. I’m concerned that he failed to mention retirement age and COLAs.

He wants to eliminate the Bush tax cut for the top 2%. I agree. Boehner’s eyes got very big here. He may have soiled his pants.

He wants to merge, consolidate and reorganize the government to eliminate duplication and overlap. This is a truly herculean task, but it desperately needs to be done. There are currently twelve different agencies regulating the oil industry. There should be one regulating all energy matters.

He promised to veto any bill that contains earmarks. While not all earmarks are bad, some, especially Republicans abuse them.

He attributed Republican members of Congress for having the same dream for the American people that he does. This was Obama’s big lie. The Republican dream for the American people is to eliminate the middle class and establish one party rule. If they shared a dream for the American people, they would on occasion do something for our benefit. They have not and do not. Republicans rule exclusively for the benefit of millionaires, billionaires, and criminal corporations. For Obama to attribute the same dream to them is anthropomorphizing a snake.

Paul Ryan’s Republican response was a compendium of attacks and lies.



He blamed Obama for Republican debt and attacked Obama’s agenda while offering none of his own. But since Republicans made him the Budget Czar yesterday in HR-38, the person with complete control over spending levels in the House Budget, his Roadmap for America is a good summary of Republican proposals.

Republicans want to simplify the tax code, raising taxes on people making under $250,000, and lowering them for millionaires, billionaires and corporations.

Republicans want to end Social Security for people under 55.

Republicans want to replace Medicare with discount vouchers for seniors, which they can use to purchase their own private insurance. Because the risks od insuring the elderly are so high, there is no private insurance.

To his credit, Ryan did say that government must provide a safety net for people who cannot support themselves. However, I believe he lied. Consider Jan Brewer’s Republican safety net.

Finally, Michelle Bachmann spoke as only she can. This author takes no responsibility for damage done to screens and keyboards as a result of watching the video.



Michelle was unable to figure out how to manage two cameras. Staring off into empty space is the most intelligent thing she said or did, but she does think the founding fathers ended slavery.

Of the three, while Obama’s speech needs to be fleshed out with more specifics, his vision for the future is far superior to the Republican alternatives.