The State of the Union Address

[1ViciousGSX]

All I heard was generalized typical b.s..... He did cover all the bases (air, water, food, jobs, immigration, health care, social security, education, taxes, government spending, military, vetoing of earmarks, Chilean miners, etc, etc, etc), but said nothing with substance. Sounded like a repeat of his campaign speeches with a little twist here and there to me.

How can the same man who brought us some of, if not the biggest growth in government size and spending, stand there with a straight face and say that our government needs to act like the rest of us and spend within our means. Actions speak more than words,.........

A "Sputnik" moment, is he serious???

Discuss,............................





p.s. Keep it civil, this is your only warning.

[Goat Blower]

Funny enough, I'm watching NBC right now and all they can whine about is the lack of talk on gun control. Typical media, don't bother with jobs or the economy, let's worry about an old democrat talking point that does nothing at all for the country.

[polishmafia]

How can the same man who brought us some of, if not the biggest growth in government size and spending, stand there with a straight face and say that our government needs to act like the rest of us and spend within our means. Actions speak more than words,.........

I won't be civil. It is my right as an American.

THIS BLEW MY FUCKING MIND.

How in the hell could he stand there, with America facing him, how could he stand there and say that HIS government needs to act like the rest of the us. He has blown more money BY FAR than any other President.

The same old shit is going to happen in this thread as all the others. I just hope and pray that at least just one, just one, person can see through the lies and the bullshit. Not one person on this board, but just one person in our country. Un-fucking-real. Mind blown.

[FattyBoomBatty]

polishsausage, you are kind of right, and kind of wrong. He has spent the most money per year than any other president. But bush has spent more total.

read this, it's short: http://www.cafetax.com/2010/09/20/bush-vs-obama-spending-the-truth/

If he keeps it up, you will be right, but so far your statement is incorrect.

p.s. Keep it civil, this is your only warning.
lol. I'm shaking in my boots!

You guys sound exactly like us liberals did during the previous administration. And bush always had some great fluff for his State of the Union speeches. They also amounted to nothing, so don't act like this is new. Obama's a politician, not a man of the people. He seemed that way at first, but has revealed his true nature. Oh well. We're all free to leave the country any time we like.

[1ViciousGSX]

I won't be civil. It is my right as an American.

THIS BLEW MY FUCKING MIND.

How in the hell could he stand there, with America facing him, how could he stand there and say that HIS government needs to act like the rest of the us. He has blown more money BY FAR than any other President.

The same old shit is going to happen in this thread as all the others. I just hope and pray that at least just one, just one, person can see through the lies and the bullshit. Not one person on this board, but just one person in our country. Un-fucking-real. Mind blown.

What I meant is that we are mature enough to discuss this without the name calling and personal attacks that start up in this forum.




p.s. Keep it civil, this is you only warning.


lol. I'm shaking in my boots!




Keep on pushing buttons, your are on your last chance here.

[1ViciousGSX]

Something worth noting:

WASHINGTON — The ledger did not appear to be adding up Tuesday night when President Barack Obama urged more spending on one hand and a spending freeze on the other.

Obama spoke ambitiously of putting money into roads, research, education, efficient cars, high-speed rail and other initiatives in his State of the Union speech. He pointed to the transportation and construction projects of the last two years and proposed "we redouble these efforts." He coupled this with a call to "freeze annual domestic spending for the next five years."

But Obama offered far more examples of where he would spend than where he would cut, and some of the areas he identified for savings are not certain to yield much if anything.

For example, he said he wants to eliminate "billions in taxpayer dollars we currently give to oil companies." Yet he made a similar proposal last year that went nowhere. He sought $36.5 billion in tax increases on oil and gas companies over the next decade, but Congress largely ignored the request, even though Democrats were then in charge of both houses of Congress.

A look at some of Obama's statements Tuesday night and how they compare with the facts:

___

OBAMA: Tackling the deficit "means further reducing health care costs, including programs like Medicare and Medicaid, which are the single biggest contributor to our long-term deficit. Health insurance reform will slow these rising costs, which is part of why nonpartisan economists have said that repealing the health care law would add a quarter of a trillion dollars to our deficit."

THE FACTS: The idea that Obama's health care law saves money for the government is based on some arguable assumptions.

To be sure, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated the law will slightly reduce red ink over 10 years. But the office's analysis assumes that steep cuts in Medicare spending, as called for in the law, will actually take place. Others in the government have concluded it is unrealistic to expect such savings from Medicare.

In recent years, for example, Congress has repeatedly overridden a law that would save the treasury billions by cutting deeply into Medicare pay for doctors. Just last month, the government once again put off the scheduled cuts for another year, at a cost of $19 billion. That money is being taken out of the health care overhaul. Congress has shown itself sensitive to pressure from seniors and their doctors, and there's little reason to think that will change.

___

OBAMA: Vowed to veto any bills sent to him that include "earmarks," pet spending provisions pushed by individual lawmakers. "Both parties in Congress should know this: If a bill comes to my desk with earmarks inside, I will veto it."

THE FACTS: House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has promised that no bill with earmarks will be sent to Obama in the first place. Republicans have taken the lead in battling earmarks while Obama signed plenty of earmark-laden spending bills when Democrats controlled both houses. As recently as last month, Obama was prepared to sign a catchall spending measure stuffed with earmarks, before it collapsed in the Senate after an outcry from conservatives over the bill's $8 billion-plus in home-state pet projects.

It's a turnabout for the president; in early 2009, Obama sounded like an apologist for the practice: "Done right, earmarks have given legislators the opportunity to direct federal money to worthy projects that benefit people in their districts, and that's why I've opposed their outright elimination," he said then.

___

OBAMA: "I'm willing to look at other ideas to bring down costs, including one that Republicans suggested last year: medical malpractice reform to rein in frivolous lawsuits."

THE FACTS: Republicans may be forgiven if this offer makes them feel like Charlie Brown running up to kick the football, only to have it pulled away, again.

Obama has expressed openness before to this prominent Republican proposal, but it has not come to much. It was one of several GOP ideas that were dropped or diminished in the health care law after Obama endorsed them in a televised bipartisan meeting at the height of the debate.

Republicans want federal action to limit jury awards in medical malpractice cases; what Obama appears to be offering, by supporting state efforts, falls short of that. The president has said he agrees that fear of being sued leads to unnecessary tests and procedures that drive up health care costs. So far the administration has provided grants to test ideas aimed at reducing medical mistakes and resolving malpractice cases by negotiation, but has recommended no change in federal law.

Trial lawyers, major political donors to Democratic candidates, are strongly opposed to caps on jury awards. But the administration has been reluctant to support other approaches, such as the creation of specialized courts where expert judges, not juries, would decide malpractice cases. In October 2009 the Congressional Budget Office estimated that government health care programs could save $41 billion over 10 years if nationwide limits on jury awards for pain and suffering and other similar curbs were enacted.

___

OBAMA: "The bipartisan Fiscal Commission I created last year made this crystal clear. I don't agree with all their proposals, but they made important progress. And their conclusion is that the only way to tackle our deficit is to cut excessive spending wherever we find it — in domestic spending, defense spending, health care spending, and spending through tax breaks and loopholes."

THE FACTS: Obama's fiscal commission did not simply recommend cutting excessive spending; it proposed that the deficit could only be tamed by cutting $3 for every $1 of new revenue raised — in other words, a painful mix of spending cuts and tax increases. Instead, Obama proposed an overhaul of the corporate tax system that would eliminate loopholes and tax breaks but also reduce tax rates. The net effect would be neutral; it would not reduce or raise any revenue. Obama has yet to sign on to any of the ideas, even though he promised when creating the panel that it would not be "one of those Washington gimmicks."

___

OBAMA: "To put us on solid ground, we should also find a bipartisan solution to strengthen Social Security for future generations."

THE FACTS: With that comment, Obama missed another chance to embrace the tough medicine proposed by the commission for bringing down the deficit. For example, he ruled out slashing benefits or partially privatizing the program, and made no reference to raising the retirement age. That left listeners to guess how he plans to do anything to salvage the popular retirement program whose trust funds are expected to run out of money in 2037 without changes.

___

OBAMA: As testament to the fruits of his administration's diplomatic efforts to control the spread of nuclear weapons, he said the Iranian government "faces tougher and tighter sanctions than ever before."

THE FACTS: That is true, and it reflects Obama's promise one year ago that Iran would face "growing consequences" if it failed to heed international demands to constrain its nuclear program. But what Obama didn't say was that U.S. diplomacy has failed to persuade Tehran to negotiate over U.N. demands that it take steps to prove it is not on the path toward a bomb. Preliminary talks with Iran earlier this month broke off after the Iranians demanded U.S. sanctions be lifted.

___

Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, giving the GOP response: "Whether sold as `stimulus' or repackaged as `investment,' their actions show they want a federal government that controls too much, taxes too much and spends too much in order to do too much."

THE FACTS: The economic stimulus package passed by the Democratic-controlled Congress in February 2009 didn't raise taxes. Instead, about a third of the package — nearly $300 billion — was made up of temporary tax cuts. The biggest was Obama's Making Work Pay credit, which provided up $400 to individuals and $800 to married couples. There were dozens of other tax cuts, including a more generous child tax credit, a tax credit for buying a home and a sales tax deduction for buying a car. Many, but not all, of the tax cuts have since expired.

Obama's health care law imposed new taxes, including a penalty for some people who don't get qualified health insurance, starting in 2014. But Obama extended Bush-era tax cuts that were due to expire at the beginning of the year. He also enacted a new one-year cut in the payroll tax for 2011 for just about every wage earner.

[FattyBoomBatty]

Keep on pushing buttons, your are on your last chance here.

Pushing buttons? Last chance.... hmm. You sure do have a lot of power on this little website and that scares me. Keep flexing that angle.

[Febo]

Something worth noting:

I haven't had a chance to read through all of that just yet but I will get around to it.

All I want is where did you get that information. Citing sources is a huge part of credibility for your argument especially when it comes to pulling information from news medias as we all know Fox is about as conservative as you can possibly get and still be human, and MSNBC is the other direction, and the Onion is obviously the best news source ever :P

[1ViciousGSX]

It's an Associated Press article bouncing all around the internet.

http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?feed=AP&date=20110125&id=12816617

http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-politics/20110126/US.State.of.Union.Fact.Check/

[Febo]

Alright then cool. Thanks for clarifying that. The AP is pretty neutral. Lots of news sources use them.