State of the Union 2007
Last night, George Bush graced us with his sixth State of the Union address. Personally, I wish Woodrow Wilson had been an abberation rather than the new standard when it came to delivering the State of the Union address, not to mention the wonderful joy of Lyndon Johnson moving the State of the Union address to prime time. Regardless of my feelings on standard delivery of the address, Bush put forward six domestic items and three international items in his address. Below is my general impression of each of these.
We’ll start out with the Domestic items, beginning with Energy policy. This is one of the few areas where I have almost no issues with Bush’s agenda. He wants to move the United States away from the massive dependency on oil we currently enjoy. As much as I hate to say it, I don’t see the collusion between the oil companies and the auto industry being broken up in a meaningful fashion without government intervention. Yes, there are hybrids on the market. However, they’re a small segment of all of the automobiles produced and the price point on them isn’t anything resembling their pure gasoline counterparts. I also agree that one thing we need to do is push domestic oil exploration. If nothing else, it’s hypocritical of us to say it’s okay for other places to endanger their areas by drilling for oil, but we’re not willing to do it here. As for Bush’s desire to increase the size of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, I honestly don’t know. From a national security standpoint, I see it as a good thing. From a standpoint of wanting to move away from oil dependency, I question the wisdom of expanding our national reserve of oil. All in all, this is one of the agenda items that didn’t leave me with a bad taste in my mouth.
Next in line was Health Care. Bush is blatantly pandering to the Democrats here and trying to beat them to the punch when it comes to National Healthcare. As anyone who’s read me for any length of time knows, I’m vehemently against Nationalized Healthcare. It’s not something that’s the responsibility of the Federal Government and should not be pursued. Yes, Bush’s plan has a private component. I’ll at least acknowledge that it’s not a full nationalization of the system. However, he fails in my viewpoint by wanting to amend the tax code to provide for a standard deduction for health care. The tax code needs to be scrapped and replaced with something else (Fair Tax, perhaps?). It does not need to be expanded to provide socialist control of the healthcare system. Yes, the health insurance industry has issues. Essentially nationalizing it isn’t the answer in my opinion.
Bush next hit on spending reform. He mouthed the usual platitudes regarding cutting out earmarks, spending with restraint, and otherwise being a good custodian for the money of the citizens of this Republic. Pardon me if I’m a bit cynical about this actually coming to fruition, especially in light of Bush’s desire to push forwarding with some form of nationalized healthcare and the wonderful prescription drug program. Until members of Congress are given some reason not to put earmarks into bills (like their Constituents booting them out of office when they do it), then it’s going to continue. Dog and Pony shows about how it’s going to be changed aren’t going to make a difference. Maybe Bush should get behind Ron Paul’s yearly submission of a bill requiring each bill put forward to quote the portion of the Constitution giving Congress the authority to do whatever the bill is enabling would get rid of some of my cynicism.
Education was the next windmill that Bush took aim toward with his lance. He’s wanting to expand and re-up No Child Left Behind. Again, this was a good idea in theory, but it’s not working and is merely another band-aid to the failing public school system. Until meaningful reform is actually made from the bottom up to the Public Schools in America, throwing money at the problem and puttinga new coat of paint in the system isn’t going to do any good. I’m firmly of the opinion that the Federal Government needs to get out of Public Education and leave it to the states. There are very few good marks the Federal Government have left on public education.
Next up was Immigration. This is currently a hot topic on both sides of the aisle. Unlike many on the Conservative side, I’m not screaming to close the borders and ship everyone home. I personally think the borders should be more open than they actually are. However, everyone should sign in at the door when they come in and should be checked to make sure we’re not letting in murderers, rapists, and other undesireables. I’m very much of the mind that the free market should be allowed to work and if people are willing to work for what many of the illegal immigrants are willing to receive, then they should be allowed to do so. Of course, I’m also of the mind that healthcare for them and social services shouldn’t be provided without them paying taxes. If they’re contributing to the system, then they get the same benefits as anyone else paying into it. If they’re not, then they don’t.
The final domestic item listed as judges. Bush again pushed the point that judicial nominations shouldn’t die in committee and all nominees deserve a timely up/down vote on the floor of the Senate. I’m personally in agreement with this. However, I also recognize that the Democrats are just doing the same thing that the Republicans did. Who does it and who cries foul changes based on who is in charge. Everyone needs to grow up and get over themselves. Given the tone of Congress, however, I honestly don’t see this happening anytime soon. The idea of doing your job while you’re there got lost in playing the partisan game.
Moving on to Bush’s International Agenda, two of them go hand in hand. He’s wanting to continue to push the war in Iraq and to expand the military. Bush is convinced his new Iraq Plan (same as the only plan, only now with more troops) is the right way to go. He’s also wanting to increase the military size by 92,000 over the next five years. Many people today are bringing up the votes of prominent Democrats in favor of the war and wanting to know why they’re not behind it now and supporting Bush. I don’t have a problem with them changing their mind given that the public information about the situation and how things have gone is much clearer now than it was when the vote was passed. While I recognize that in hindsight the invasion of Iraq was poorly handled, ill considered, and bothed in various ways, I think that simply dropping things and withdrawing will only escalate the destabilization of the region. I could point fingers at whom I believe are to blame for the quagmire in Iraq, but that serves no real purpose here. I do, however, believe that more troops would be a good thing given how thinly spread we are right now. Where those troops are going to come from, however, I honestly don’t know.
The final bit of his interational agenda were the continued support for efforts to combat AIDS and Malaria outside of the United States. In my personal opinion, this isn’t something we should be doing. Leave this to private donors and foundations. Taking care of diseases in other countries is not our responsibility and is not a valid use of tax dollars in this country. Just as we shouldn’t be the world’s police man, we also shouldn’t be the world’s doctor.
In the end, we had more of the same from Bush. There was really nothing new under the sun, nor did I honestly expect there to be. If you’re interested in reading more on Bush’s State of the Union agenda, it’s available in PDF at whitehouse.gov. Personally, I’d rather do that anyway and do without the pomp and ceremony that now surrounds the State of the Union address. Anyone know out of curiosity how much tax payer money was wasted in last night’s speech? Something tells me I really don’t want to know.