Haven't I Heard This Speech Before? The State of the Union Re-Run

I attended last night's State of the Union address with hopes that President Bush would surprise me and offer some fresh new ideas on how to solve at least some of the pressing challenges that our nation faces today.

However, five minutes into the speech, all I could think was, "Haven't I heard this speech before?" And essentially I have. We all have.

It was the same speech we all heard last year and the year before that, touting the same stale old remedies that haven't worked in the past and most likely won't work in the future.

Middle class families across the nation are feeling a serious economic pinch as a direct result of President Bush's lack of oversight and fiscal mismanagement. Now facing a mounting mortgage crisis, lower wages, and skyrocketing costs for basic necessities like gas, health care, and college tuition, working families deserve real answers, not recycled ideology.

They deserve bold new leadership, not renewed proposals for deficit-financed tax cuts for the wealthy that have already widened the income gap between millionaires and middle-class workers.

We know where those lead.

Since President Bush took office in January 2001, the unemployment rate has increased 19 percent and long-term joblessness has doubled, making job creation among the worst since the Hoover Administration.

On the President's watch, gas prices have risen 107 percent and the United States has accumulated $1.33 trillion more in debt to foreigners than this country has accumulated in its first 224 years.

Meanwhile, 47 million Americans, including 9 million children, are left uninsured and hundreds of thousands of families were forced to foreclose on their homes in 2007 because of unscrupulous lenders.

Still, instead of a renewed commitment to assisting working families, President Bush appears resolved to ignore priorities at home while continuing to spend billions of dollars every month on a war with no end in sight.

In spite of these great challenges to our country and the opportunity to show leadership, President Bush offered few new ideas to solving many of our nation's most pressing problems.

Now, to be fair, I do appreciate Mr. Bush's willingness to negotiate on the economic stimulus package that the House of Representatives passed today. However, after all this time, it is clear that any such new ideas to fixing America's problems will continue to originate from Congress.

We in Congress are committed to moving forward, passed the failed policies of President George W. Bush and toward economic recovery.

We are committed to looking for fresh ideas and policies that address the tremendous challenges we face as a nation.

However, it is clear from last night's State of the Union that we will not be turning to the White House for those ideas during the last year of Mr. Bush's presidency.

Comments

[indypete]

Watched about 5 minutes of the speech and had to turn it off because I was sounding like a tourette's ward. Figured I'd learn more by seeing what Jon Stewart had to say about it.

[jennmce]

I agree with most of the people who have already commented. I am one of those middle class who fell into the working poor, who lost jobs, wages, and health care, and I just can't blame the Bush Administration anymore. Congressional Democrats are just as much at fault, and until you Democrats grow a spine and start standing up to this loser of a President, and actually pass policies that help the middle and working classes, you will have neither my respect nor my vote!

[rh654]

This post reminds me of co-workers who are always complaining about things, blame everyone else but who never seem to actually DO anything to make things better.

If things aren't going how you like - then do something about it. We already know that Bush is a horrible President - that isn't the question - the question is do the Democrats have the guts to do anything about it?

[rh654]

"five minutes into the speech, all I could think was, "Haven't I heard this speech before?""

rh654: I think the same thing everytime I hear the Democrats say how they are going to say no to Bush.

"They deserve bold new leadership, not renewed proposals for deficit-financed tax cuts for the wealthy that have already widened the income gap between millionaires and middle-class workers."

rh654: So we know that Bush ain't gonna do it - where is leadership from the Democrats - what bold plans will be pushed without backing down when Bush says "boo"?

BOTH Parties are at fault - its not as though Bush screws these things up in a vacuum.

[jcorrington]

Ah, but Rep Louise, and congress has supported every single thing this administration has put out. All we the people have heard from yall is the cracking of your spines.

And by golly, we wont forget.



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[drblack]

So True Rep. Slaughter.
Anytime Bush gives a speech you ALWAYS know EXACTLY what will be said and that it will be as far from reality as possible.

[midvanisle]

Democrats = Republicans

[PerryWhite]

And your new idea is from each according to his ability, to each according to his need?

[LiarLiarIraqsOnFire]

Cut & Paste the Lies, Bullshit and Revisionist History.

[MrMike513]

Duh!

[RagingJerseyBoy]

That's why I didn't bother to watch it or listen to it on the radio. I knew that the speech would be more of the same old pablum, and it would be a pointless waste of my time. Bush is a lame duck President whose legacy will be war and economic turbulence. His administration will not be looked at kindly by future historians, despite the best efforts of Republican hacks who will have a second career trying to cosmetize this disaster that the Bush presidency has been. Many books will be written, analyzing Bush's pscyche and proposing theories about what possessed America at the turn of the 21st Century.

There will be a rough road ahead, though I hope that we can look forward to a better, more enlightened future; that we as Americans can realize that our fates are intertwined and unite to solve some of our most intransigent problems, as unlikely as that may seem today.

[chappelforpres]

"...We will not be turning to the White House for those ideas (fresh / imaginative policy) during the last year of Mr. Bush's presidency.

Louise. Please. Your constituency, and any Democrat with a shred of common sense, gave this stubborn imbecile up for dead a year prior to the last election. Did you really expect anything less?

Why have you and your fellow Democrats failed so completely on the one issue you were elected to resolve...an end to the WAR?

I can't sy it enough. The WAR! The WAR! The WAR! The war has destabilized the entire region. The war is oozing into neighboring states, some with nuclear weapons. War tensions are relentlessly driving up gas prices. The war has led to spiraling deficits. The war has destroyed the dollar! The war has fostered an atmosphere of unprecedented corporate greed and unaccountable corruption. The war has an enabled and strengthened a much more totalitarian, unitary executive. The war sucks 90% of all government resources.

According to history, wars of this type have not and inevitably will not, be won.

Forget the the insiders, the special interests, the big contributors for a second and understand the severity of our situation. Be a real patriot. Save this country...and your soul. End the War!!

[oldpotsmuggler]

It's odd to me that you recognize the futility of really trying to get anything beneficial done during the remainder of this Term but don't seem to be consumed with putting your available energy into helping it to end sooner. Realsitically you can't work on anything else anyway, so why not spend your time and energy working on Impeachment? You don't need to worry about dividing the country. Bush/Cheney have already done that and came up with the sort end of the wish bone.

[elion10]

I don't think its the same old speech-- its now Bizzaro world- where reality is the opposite of everything he says.

The troops are come home because of the new RETURN ON SUCCESS! policy- Not because their tours are up and we are strechedto the max, and the whole thing was a mistake any way.

The ecomomy is "slowed" not 6 ft under, and its all due to to irresponsible borrowers- who had the nerve to get loans they couldn't afford for houses they are now losing.. NOT because the gov't agencies in charge of "oversight" looked the other way, and greedy banks made loans and traders bundled them up and passed them off on the international market (while regulators did what?- Martha Stewart went to jail for "failing to recall" a conversation with her broker, but no one is going to jail over this??)

And oh yeah- my favorite- he's all fired up to stamp out that fiscal scourge EAR MARKS! ! (cause the last 7 years of republican controlled congress never did that!)

[rwe]

and so you wrote the same after Bills 8 speeches or is this just bipartiasanship