Obama State of the Union Address Will be More Rhetoric and No Substance for The Middle Class

I can already hear the empty pandering to the middle class in President Obama's State of the Union speech. He will be reading one of the most well written speeches of his presidency since he and his handlers realize their reign in Washington could be on the ropes.

President Obama has a documentable track record of broken campaign promises and policies that have virtually ignored the middle class.

In my perfect world, every network carrying President Obama's State of the Union address would be required to run a scrolling banner of my up to the minute commentary on the bottom of the screen.

When President Obama starts to roll out his impassioned B.S. about his concern for small businesses and the middle class, I could throw-up some of the actual data on his policies to date.

As people watch President Obama on the screen, I want them to see that small businesses in the middle class are responsible for over 97 percent of all net new jobs in America. To date, President Obama and the democratically controlled Congress have allocated approximately 2 percent of the stimulus funds to small businesses.

When he starts to talk about small businesses, I would run some of the latest government data that shows every day of his administration, hundreds of millions in federal contracts that by law are earmarked for small business have been diverted to Fortune 500 firms.

I would love to run the names across the bottom of the screen as he spoke of some of the firms the Obama Administration is currently giving small business contracts. I wonder how President Obama's most ardent supporters would feel when they saw billions of dollars in federal small business contracts going to Bechtel, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman.

The largest recipient in the latest government small business data was Textron, a Fortune 500 corporation with 43,000 employees, and $14 billion in annual revenue. That's a small business right? Textron received nearly $780 million in federal small business contracts in a single year.

I wonder what affect it would have on his poll numbers if every American knew the Obama Administration was giving U.S. government small business funds to some of the largest corporations in England, France, Italy and even South Korea.

After all the shocking statistics ran, I would run a statement President Obama released almost two years ago in February of 2008, "It is time to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants." (http://www.barackobama.com/2008/02/26/the_american_small_business_le.php)

I think most people would be much more informed if they skipped President Obama's State of the Union address and spent that time looking up some of the stories on what he has actually done instead. Google "Lloyd Chapman Barack Obama small business" [Do not search with the words in quotes] and see what you find.

There is a staggering abyss between what Obama says and what Obama does.

One of the best examples is President Obama's campaign promise to enact a windfall profits tax on the oil and gas industry. On every campaign stop for two years, President Obama promised to enact a windfall profits tax on oil companies. If you want to find out how much you can trust what Barack Obama says, try and find his excuse for completely dropping the windfall profits tax.

So when you watch the State of the Union address or any Obama speech, realize that the man gives $2 billion a week in federal small business funds to some of the largest companies in the world. Realize that his two top campaign contributors, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan Chase are making record profits in the middle of the worst economic meltdown in 80 years, while bankruptcies for small businesses are up 44 percent over last year.

People need to begin to realize that President Obama should have received an Oscar for best actor instead of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Wednesday night he will read his lines with passion and conviction, but Thursday morning his policies will continue to ignore the middle class and the small businesses where most Americans work and that create over 97 percent of all net new jobs.

The only change the middle class going to get from President Obama will be the pocket change that's left in their bank accounts at the end of the month.

 

Follow Lloyd Chapman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/LloydChapman

Comments

[party-of-one]

06:53 AM on 01/31/2010

Thanks for the spin from HillaryLand, where facts never matter.

[SBBeliever]

02:04 PM on 01/28/2010

Now there's one ticker I'd love to have seen running across the bottom of my TV screen.

[benjak]

10:52 AM on 01/28/2010

MediaCurves.com just conducted a study with 1050 viewers of President Obama’s State of the Union address. Results found that favorability for the President’s plans for health care, the economy, and foreign policy increased among all political parties after viewing President Obama’s State of the Union Address. In addition, the percentage of respondents who indicated that they would vote for Barack Obama if he ran for a second term increased among all parties. More in-depth results can be seen at:
http://www.mediacurves.com/Politics/J7719-ObamaStateofUnionPost/
Thanks,
Ben

[Mzero2580]

01:27 PM on 01/28/2010

President Obama better keep his word or that increased percentage will drop significantly more than if he did not have a State of the Union spreech alltogether. I believe the speech was well written and put across nicely but how can we tell if this is no more than a giant PR stunt. It sounds like he adressed the situation extremely well, too well... I am keeping my fingers crossed it is true. I favor most of these policies he has put forward but how many of them will become accomplished? Obama! you better keep your word this time or the American middle class is going to be very upset.

[Ashki]

07:37 PM on 01/27/2010

I am excitied to hear a great speech. I am excited to hear the great advances he has made. But most of all, I am excited to see how clever politicans can be and how they address all the shortfalls. Obama, will have to rely on some talented and creative speech writers to show this crap we call an economy, unemployment, and failing infrastructure as sunshine and lollipops.

This should be an interesting speech indeed

[Mzero2580]

04:05 PM on 01/27/2010

Why are small businesses not being active about this. They sit around and whine that there is nothing they can do. This is a democracy, even though it doesn't seem that way. The only reason these corporate fatcats have control over middleclass America is because we turn our heads the other way. These major corporations would not exist without middle and lower classes. Why can't we make more of an effort to show them this. Prove to them that unless they support our business we will not support theirs. Obama is not going to "Change things" he is going to make statements left and right and expect us to believe his words. I am going to do everything in my power to stop these major corporation from recieving small business contracts, even if i have to rally every small buisness in America together myself!

[Clive Coogan]

06:52 AM on 01/27/2010

Great post! Interesting that there is such a lack of comments on this topic. I suppose most small business owners are busy working their %$# off to prevent bankruptcy or foreclosure. Really sickening stats on the diversion of SBA money and the like. I've been struggling for almost 2 years on a UI income, after a small business I worked for in L.A. went belly up. Nevertheless, I decided to open my own business with absolutely no money. I recently got a great 2.5% interest loan for $50,000 from the Denver Office of Economic Development, and I 'm a Start-Up. Granted, I put my house on the line, there is still some City government using their brains effectively. As for Mr. B.O. (pun intended), I am completely disillusioned. The excitement and energy we all felt at his last Denver rally has fizzled into the reality that the administration has taken the fork in the road that leads to OZ. Like many politicians before him, we all fell for the pablum.

[wonketteRAWKS]

10:14 PM on 01/26/2010

Interesting, though hardly a surprise. The man is all talk...and more talk on top of that.