Friday, March 29, AD 2024 4:59am

The State of the Union Speech That Will Never Be Delivered

Here is the State of the Union Speech that will never be delivered:

“Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, Distinguished Guests, my fellow Americans.  Each year it is a duty of the President to report on the State of the Union to the Congress.  Often these speeches have been mere feel good exercises, frequently containing little of substance.  Tonight is going to be different.  Tonight it is time for blunt truth.

America is a great and strong nation, but in many ways the State of our Union is troubled.  We have the worst economy in the last three decades.  Signs of recovery are few.  I could attempt to assess some responsibility for this poor economy to my predecessor, but that would be pointless.  You, the American people, are not interested in blame.  What you are interested in is improving the economy, and so far, under my watch, that has not happened.  I, in good faith, attempted to stimulate the economy through a massive stimulus bill.  Thus far the results have been meager for the amount of money spent.  Time for a course correction.  Beginning tomorrow I am going to hold meetings with the Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress.  The economy is my number one priority, as it rightly is yours, and I am open to all ideas, from whatever source, to jumpstart the economy and return us to the path to prosperity.  If taxcuts and spending cuts are necessary to get the economy moving, so be it.  Whatever works is my watchword on this key issue.  To quote another President from Illinois, “The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present.”  I am a Democrat, by the standards of many Americans a Liberal Democrat.  I’m proud of this, but I will not allow my adherence to certain beliefs to stand in the way of improving the economy.  Time for us all, past time, Republicans, Democrats and Independents, to work together to get out of this recession.    This is my chief concern and I will do whatever it takes to accomplish this task.

Tied in with the recovery of our economy is the fact that we simply must get government spending under control.  For decades both parties have, with the tacit consent of most of the American public, engaged in policies that have us now running up annual deficits  in excess of a trillion dollars.  Democrats believe that government programs are necessary to help less fortunate Americans.  Republicans believe in low taxes as a stimulus for the economy.  We have had both all of my adult life, through government by credit card, leaving to the future the day of reckoning.  My fellow Americans, the day of reckoning is here.  We cannot continue on our present course without inflicting permanent harm to our economy.  The cuts necessary to break our spending habits will be painful.  Too many Americans believe that we could balance our budget by ending foreign aid which makes up a very small fraction of the federal budget.  Others, especially politicians, claim we can balance the budget through ending waste, fraud and abuse.  This is all nonsense.  To truly cut spending will require sacrifices that I think most Americans will find  hard to accept, but it must be done.  I will veto any spending bill that does not pay for itself through current revenues.  I will expect my Republican colleagues to come forward with specific proposals as to cuts that can be made in the federal budget.  I will expect both parties to confront the outrage that will descend on the government as cherished programs are slashed or taxes are raised.  For too long we have been content to merely engage in political gamesmanship when it comes to government spending.  The time for games is ended;  the time for action is at hand.

In foreign policy we still confront radical Jihadists willing to kill innocent people to reach their goals.  In Afghanistan we have the hard task of making sure that nation does not relapse into a haven for terrorists.  I have told our generals that I will back them to the hilt in achieving victory in Afghanistan and in the war on terror.  Many Americans are war weary, but these are not optional conflicts.  We must prevail or face a future where terrorism will assume terrifying proportions.

In regard to the Affordable Care Act, obviously changes must be made.  The Act was passed and supported by me with the noblest of intentions to assist Americans who had no health care insurance.  The goal was noble but the execution has been mixed at best.  I will submit to Congress tomorrow proposed changes to improve the Affordable Care Act.  I call upon all members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, to join me in a sincere effort to improve the law for the benefit of all Americans.

Thomas Jefferson when he became our third President sought to heal the partisan divisions in his time by saying that we are all Federalists, we are all Republicans.  Throughout my two terms the parties have confronted each other in an atmosphere of heated, bitter partisanship.  This year is an election year, and naturally both parties will seek to do well in November.  However, this is not a time for business as usual.  Together we can make a start this year in attacking the problems that plague our country.  I pledge myself to work with the Republican and Democratic leadership in Congress to attempt to devise bi-partisan solutions to our nation’s ills.  Too many times the struggle for political advantage blinds us to possible solutions that both sides could embrace if they were not concerned about the political cost.

Compared to other times in the history of our nation, the Civil War, the Great Depression, the World Wars, the challenges confronting us are not on so grand a scale.  However, we, not our children, must deal with them now.  If we succeed, future generations may point to us with pride.  If we fail, less prosperous future generations may bitterly reproach our inability to take simple but painful steps to deal with our economic and budgetary woes.  Americans have a history of directly confronting obstacles and overcoming them.  Together we can do so again.

Goodnight, and may God bless you, and God bless America.

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Don the Kiwi
Don the Kiwi
Wednesday, January 27, AD 2010 6:09pm

Yep Don.

America will not hear your draft – unfortunately.

Anthony
Anthony
Wednesday, January 27, AD 2010 7:28pm

…still supporting the military industrial complex along with the foreign policy that contributed to the current conflicts, I see…

Mike Petrik
Mike Petrik
Wednesday, January 27, AD 2010 7:48pm

Don,
You fail to understsand. 9/11 was our fault. We had it coming. And when some nutjob detonates a nuke killing thousands of innocents, that will be our fault too. Just like AIDs, famines, and Anthony’s head cold. Well, that last one may be Bush’s fault.

DarwinCatholic
DarwinCatholic
Wednesday, January 27, AD 2010 7:56pm

That would be a pretty awesome speech.

Anthony
Anthony
Wednesday, January 27, AD 2010 7:57pm

Golly, Don, its not like our government ever did anything to them or their peoples… oh, wait…

Your shallow paragraph of ‘foreign policy’ is essentially the neocon line. 9/11! 9/11! 9/11!

The conflict, as you say, is not optional. But our strategies for victory and how we adjust our future diplomatic relations is very much so optional.

Here, you just dig your heels in and ‘support the generals to the hilt’, whatever that is supposed to mean. Unfortunately it seems more and more often to ‘conservatives’ it means giving the military (and most importantly, their contractors!) whatever it wants.

If there’s anything that bothers me most about this country’s path its her love affair with war. For some inane reason, war (the larger, the better) is the only way to defeat an enemy and if you do not agree, well then, you must be a wimp, a push-over, delusional, an America-hater or all of the above.

I, in all sincere intellectual honesty, find my nation’s inclinations on the matter both self-destructive and— unchristian.

What we blow up now, will inevitably blow up in our face some day down the road. And what will we do then? We will simply keep the violent circle going as we have for some time— wasting increasingly precious resources and irreplaceable lives.

Anthony
Anthony
Wednesday, January 27, AD 2010 8:27pm

Actually, the above economic interventions— excluding those that are genuinely of independent, private (and productive) origin— do bother me. Aid inevitably seeks to influence and potentially control, with less than sincere intentions. There are always strings.

If, as you say, ‘the dogmas of the [hardly] quiet past are inadequate for the stormy present’, why not the same attitude in our foreign relations? Surely there are better ways to resolve differences than to only choose between bombs and bribes.

Lord only knows how messy things are getting in places like Yemen and Pakistan of late…

RL
RL
Wednesday, January 27, AD 2010 8:35pm

Fellow Americans, I promised a lot of things when campaigning for president. Everything from closing Gitmo to getting us out of Iraq. I have thus far failed to deliver on just about everything except rescinding the Mexico City policy. I said that I would make the USA and the world a better place. I know, that is an apparent failure as well. However, I intend to make good on that promise tonight. Four hours ago I signed an executive order to have the body of President Reagan exhumed. In a few hours, he will be placed behind the desk of the Oval Office and a jar of jelly beans placed on the desk. I will sign an executive order making Ronald Wilson Reagan (Exp.) the President Pro Tempore. I will sign another executive order ordering having Speaker Pelosi’s face unstretched. Then I will resign the Office of the President of the Untied States. There, the world is a better place and it’s all because of me!

Art Deco
Art Deco
Wednesday, January 27, AD 2010 9:55pm

Golly, Don, its not like our government ever did anything to them or their peoples… oh, wait…

Nope Anthony we’ve never done anything to the people in the Middle East other than pay them for their oil,

Maclin Horton has had for some years a joint blog with a postman from Ohio with whom he published a small circulation magazine back about 20 years ago. This fellow adheres to “Anthony’s” views. After a number of exchanges with this fellow, I have discovered that ‘what our government did to them [and] their peoples’ means…the State of Israel continues to exist.

Zak
Zak
Thursday, January 28, AD 2010 8:15am

I fail to see how cutting government spending is an essential part of getting our economy going. It may be necessary, but it will not serve to create jobs. And cutting taxes isn’t going to address the budget issues.

c matt
c matt
Thursday, January 28, AD 2010 10:15am

I am certainly no expert on ME affairs, but it seems we have done a little more than just pay for their oil. Wasn’t Saddam supported by us at one point, and I am sure there were other various gov’t leaders that we supported who were less than savory or popular.

Do you really think that any enterprise of any size, American, French, German or otherwise, would leave their sizeable investments in infrastructure (as you acknowledge) completely up to the whims of “the people”? Sorry, but I ain’t buying “all we did was pay them for their oil”. Getting that oil requires greasing some skids, and that gets dirty.

c matt
c matt
Thursday, January 28, AD 2010 10:17am

Would that we followed George Washington’s counsel on foreign affairs a little more, and George Bush’s a little less.

Tito Edwards
Thursday, January 28, AD 2010 11:27am

Anthony, C Matt, et al.,

If it wasn’t for those peace loving barbary pirates that continued to attack our shipping vessels off the coast of north Africa, we would have never created a Navy!

Damn it if we didn’t have it coming to us.

We invaded their lake, ie, the Mediterranean, refused to convert to Islam and then dared to deliver commercial goods in their lake to non-Muslim shipping ports!

We sure deserved being boarded, our men enslaved, and our women raped.

Boy the things we do to offend Muslims!

Art Deco
Art Deco
Thursday, January 28, AD 2010 12:07pm

Wasn’t Saddam supported by us at one point, and I am sure there were other various gov’t leaders that we supported who were less than savory or popular.

Can you define what you mean by ‘support’?

Anthony
Anthony
Thursday, January 28, AD 2010 1:53pm

Let’s also not forget our support (of the weapons and money kind) to the Afghans against the Soviets, who afterwards repaid us in kind by morphing into organizations like al Qaeda and the Taliban. One good turn deserves another I suppose…

Israel, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen… when will the madness stop? Don’t get me wrong, I pray that the governments in these regions would just roll over and play dead, at least that would suck dry the blood lust and paranoia at home. But some how I think doing that might have severe domestic consequences for them…

…of course I neglected to mention the aspect of this ongoing ‘war against a tactic’ that bugs me most of all— its undeclared! Which of course gives our political class (always a moral and trustworthy lot) the freedom to constantly shift what ‘victory’ means, to say nothing of their justifications. Just look at what’s happened to the ‘anti-war’ left… turns out they don’t mind war so much after all…

No, this whole mess stinketh to high hell and there is no end in sight. Bankruptcy, not politics, is the only thing that can stop it.

And Tito… why should my objection to our policy translate into support (or cowardice) towards Muslim fascists? I want NOTHING to do with their mess. If they can ever get their act together and trade peacefully with no strings great, we’re open for business. If they’re more interested in converts and murder then not so much.

It’s that simple. Going on a nation-building adventure is completely ludicrous. Any fruit that comes of it (that is not bitter) is decades away at incalculable cost.

I do not object to a ‘strong national defense’. Thats crucial to our independence. What I’m objecting to, and questioning is whether our response is (a.) properly measured to the act of war perpetrated, (b.) undermining us economically (c.) eroding liberties at home, thereby burdening Americans to the benefit of the state and (d.) failing to combat the motivations for what has been done to us.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Thursday, January 28, AD 2010 2:05pm

Israel, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen… when will the madness stop?

What madness?

I want NOTHING to do with their mess.

They are not giving you that choice.

Anthony
Anthony
Thursday, January 28, AD 2010 3:07pm

Under these current conditions, no it is not possible with regards specifically to oil… but all we want to buy is the oil… why the nation building? Having nothing to do with their internal difficulties does not equal not desiring their products.

Additionally, we find ourselves reliant on said source of oil for a variety of OTHER sorts of interventions: on the environmental front and economic front here at home. Taxes, regulations and subsidies have all served to warp the free market, entrenching our need for oil as opposed to allowing the market and entrepreneurs to adjust to realities.

Its not the ‘shrinking world’ that forces the confrontation, its the pressure of mounting government interventions both domestically and internationally abroad that place us between a rock and hard place.

It has been clear for some time now that Middle Eastern politics is violent and unpredictable. Yet what has our government done to alleviate the situation aside from military response and damaging sanctions?

Art Deco
Art Deco
Thursday, January 28, AD 2010 3:22pm

Its not the ’shrinking world’ that forces the confrontation, its the pressure of mounting government interventions both domestically and internationally abroad that place us between a rock and hard place.

It is not excessive state intervention into economic life that induced Saddam Hussein to occupy Kuwait or that induced the Taliban to harbor a criminal organization with an allergy to skyscrapers.

why the nation building? Having nothing to do with their internal difficulties does not equal not desiring their products.

Conflicts with the Taliban and with the Government of Iran are not rooted in the discretionary policies of those agents not in our efforts at nation-building.

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