Yes, I did watch the President’s second State of the Union address last night. I wanted to sleep on it, before I actually typed a blog entry about it; and besides, I was tired last night and needed to go to bed. Heck, they accuse me now of being crazy when I blog wide-awake; could you imagine me doing a blog entry half-asleep? 😮
Now about that speech — honestly folks, I thought it was very well done. I thought the President spoke very well and even cracked a rather funny joke about the complexity of the Federal Government. Now there were some things, that as a Conservative, I really had to wonder about. First off, how in the heck is the President going to cut spending, and work on the Nation’s infrastructure? It simply cannot be done. The President is going to spend money updating our infrastructure or he is going to cut spending — you cannot do both; well, at least not very well.
The President made a huge emphasis on education, he also made a huge concession that America’s standing in the World has slipped to Nations like China. I believe that was important. However, I would have like it greatly, if the President had said, how we needed to cut down on, not increase, exports. I would have liked it if the President would have, by executive order — ordered the repeal of the North America Free Trade Agreement, TAFTA and the rest of the free trade agreements. I also would have liked it, if the President would have imposed extremely stiff tariffs on those importing goods into our Country. I would have liked it, if the President would have, by executive order, imposed a strict and high tax on those who have companies here in the United States and manufactured products overseas and imported them here. Now that would have impressed me. However, the President, along with his Republican predecessor continues the agenda of globalism, which is killing the American job market.
The reason I say this, is this; if someone can pay a dollar to some person in China to build a product, as opposed to paying someone minimum wage here —- trust me, those businessperson are going to do it. This is what needs to happen; we need to make it more costly for those business people to do that very thing. That and only that is the way that we will bring manufacturing back to America.
One thing that the President did do that I felt was an honorable gesture; and that was recognizing the man that saved the lives of the miners in Chili. Not only that, but using that an example of how American innovation can be used in times of crisis. I felt that deserved much praise, although you will not see that, at all, on any blogs on the right and it is tragic — as it were the Conservative bloggers who raised that issue, and criticized Obama for not speaking favorably about the man in the first place.
Let me end this by say this. Words and speeches are one thing. Actions and results are another. Like I said about Rick Snyder’s State of the State speech here in Michigan — it was a good speech, but it was very short on specifics. I, like many other Americans, are looking for results. Flowery speeches are nice and rhetoric is great. However, none of those things creates jobs and puts food on the table. When the results come in, than I will say more about this President and what he has done for the Country. So far, all I have seen is flowery speeches and empty rhetoric from BOTH SIDES. When the results come in, and the jobs start being plentiful again, then I will say yea or nay. Until then, I remain skeptical — of BOTH SIDES!