Things Obama didn’t mention

LARRY ANDERSON
Larry Anderson

I didn’t watch President Obama’s recent State of the Union Address for several reasons, but mainly because I didn’t want to. I was certain I had heard it before, and I wasn’t far off.

I did read the speech off the Internet, so I am familiar with the content, which was well composed, and, I assume, efficiently delivered. All messages of this nature are partly positive reassurance, partly pep talk, and partly directional. It is the directional segment that is problematic.

When the president announced the state of the union is strong, I agreed, but America has never been weak, not even when in the direst of straits.

We have the most flexible and adaptable economy in the world.

Setbacks are inevitable, part of the ebb and flow of a free and open system, but our strength is our ability to overcome adversity and find the opportunities contained therein. A few years ago America was largely dependent on imported oil; now we are the greatest energy producer in the world. Again.

Call it a comeback.

Some things happen because of necessary policies augmented by bold leadership, but often progress will occur no matter who is seated in the Oval Office. Our economy would have come back if Mitt Romney had been elected instead of Obama. The need was there, and the tools were in place.

This recovery was one of the slowest on record. It is far from complete, but many of the signs are positive.

I take issue with a president taking credit for an energy production upswing when his official position was demonstrated by the shutting down of offshore drilling and the closing of mines that produced inexpensive energy when compared to alternative sources. Results, reality, and rhetoric aren’t always mutually inclusive; however, one’s actions do define an inner purpose.

Obama said during the speech, “So let’s set our sights higher than a single oil pipeline.” Of course he was setting the stage for a veto of the Keystone pipeline, despite its support of the people, the need for a strong energy alliance with Canada, and the jobs the project will provide.

Let’s set our sights high, but why not include the pipeline? Keystone isn’t irrelevant and has nothing to do with shortsightedness. The arguments against it, legal and environmental, have been answered.

We should have the pipeline, and the sooner the better.

The president remarked about shrinking deficits. Understand progress in this department is marginal. Shaving a few billion off spending is a step in the right direction, but for now the amount is so small it has little impact. Deficit spending will go on as will the compiling of debt. Our national debt is now over $18 trillion.

There are only two potential solutions to spending too much and the associated debt compilation. One is to spend less; the other is to raise taxes which, in the past, simply led to more spending, not less debt.

Obama said nothing about spending less, the conservative choice, but he did mention raising taxes. While he assured all in the endangered middle class that taxes on the wealthy would be redistributed to those in the middle, I am highly skeptical. And I am opposed to more taxes on anyone. I think all pay enough.

What America needs is a balanced budget and a systematic reduction of existing debt. This is no small thing. No government can spend more than it takes in forever.

When the national debt isn’t even mentioned in the annual national address, one can assume it isn’t a concern, let alone a priority with this president who has doubled the national debt in six years.

Obama didn’t mention ObamaCare, the alleged solution to healthcare issues. He didn’t mention it because it is less popular than the flu.

The president didn’t mention the trade deficit which runs into hundreds of billions annually. There was only the usual talking point about opening up new buyers for American products. So, what’s the plan?

According to Debt Clock, 47 million Americans are on food stamps. Not mentioned by the president. Not a priority.

Welfare is not a solution to poverty, never has been, never will be. For many, it is a sentencing to poverty. Not addressed in those terms. Forty-four million live in poverty, according to Debt Clock.

The United States of America, the greatest nation on Earth in so many ways, owes six trillion dollars to foreign countries. All borrowed by a government that can’t stop spending money it doesn’t have or is entitled to. Not mentioned.

Obama spoke for nearly an hour. There were ideas, but I didn’t read a plan beyond his love of the veto. Needs are many, but there would be fewer if he would stop trying to fix what isn’t broken and repair that which is. He might try working with Congress.

It could be a new experience for the president amid listless approval.

Larry W. Anderson believes America’s biggest social problem is out-of-control immigration.