Now that I’ve got some sleep, I have a few more thoughts on the State of the Union address. I’ll be skipping around a bit.
I liked some of the general fluff at the front:
The rite of custom brings us together at a defining hour — when decisions are hard and courage is needed. We enter the year 2007 with large endeavors underway, and others that are ours to begin. In all of this, much is asked of us. We must have the will to face difficult challenges and determined enemies — and the wisdom to face them together.
Some in this chamber are new to the House and the Senate — and I congratulate the Democrat majority. (Applause.) Congress has changed, but not our responsibilities. Each of us is guided by our own convictions — and to these we must stay faithful. Yet we’re all held to the same standards, and called to serve the same good purposes: To extend this nation’s prosperity; to spend the people’s money wisely; to solve problems, not leave them to future generations; to guard America against all evil; and to keep faith with those we have sent forth to defend us. (Applause.)
We’re not the first to come here with a government divided and uncertainty in the air. Like many before us, we can work through our differences, and achieve big things for the American people. Our citizens don’t much care which side of the aisle we sit on — as long as we’re willing to cross that aisle when there is work to be done. (Applause.) Our job is to make life better for our fellow Americans, and to help them to build a future of hope and opportunity — and this is the business before us tonight.
I like it when they say stuff like that. It paints a nice vision of democracy.
On the other hand, he does raise the ugly spectre of bipartisanship. I prefer it when they hate each other and get nothing done.
I’m not sure I want this government to “work through [their] differences, and achieve big things for the American people.” I don’t want to be dragged into their dreams of greatness. I want them to leave me alone so I can achieve my own little things. My goals may be small by comparison to Bush’s goals, but they’re my goals.
A future of hope and opportunity begins with a growing economy — and that is what we have. We’re now in the 41st month of uninterrupted job growth, in a recovery that has created 7.2 million new jobs — so far. Unemployment is low, inflation is low, and wages are rising. This economy is on the move, and our job is to keep it that way, not with more government, but with more enterprise. (Applause.)
I’m sure some member of the opposition has already responded by pointing out that the economy isn’t good for everyone—the single head of household raising two kids, the factory worker whose job has just been outsourced to the third world—but most economic choices are tradeoffs and the economy is never equally good for everyone. Statistics by their nature are reductions of messy reality into simpler stories that are easier to comprehend. If properly chosen, they are still meaningful and useful.
These statistics have proven themselves over many years, and these statistics mean the country is doing very well by historical standards. President Bush and the Republicans didn’t create this healthy economy, they simply don’t have the power to do that. As always, we the people created it with our money, our hard work, our ingenuity, and our enterprise. But the President and his party deserve props for not screwing it up. It hasn’t always been that way.
First, we must balance the federal budget. (Applause.) We can do so without raising taxes. (Applause.) What we need is impose spending discipline in Washington, D.C. We set a goal of cutting the deficit in half by 2009, and met that goal three years ahead of schedule. (Applause.) Now let us take the next step. In the coming weeks, I will submit a budget that eliminates the federal deficit within the next five years. (Applause.) I ask you to make the same commitment. Together, we can restrain the spending appetite of the federal government, and we can balance the federal budget.(Applause.)
Sigh. That’s five interruptions for applause in a single paragraph. Remember what I said earlier about democracy being “banal and unsightly”? This calculated applause is a perfect example. Note that since Speaker Nancy Pelosi is seated right behind Bush we get to see what she applauds for. I’d swear sometimes I can see her pause to make the calculation of just how much to clap. Glenn Reynolds is trying to draw conclusions from this. It’s a little depressing to think that it matters.
More substantively, reducing the deficit is not the best reason to cut government spending. The best reason to cut government spending is to stop the government from consuming so much of our productive output.
And, finally, to keep this economy strong we must take on the challenge of entitlements. Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid are commitments of conscience, and so it is our duty to keep them permanently sound. Yet, we’re failing in that duty. And this failure will one day leave our children with three bad options: huge tax increases, huge deficits, or huge and immediate cuts in benefits. Everyone in this chamber knows this to be true — yet somehow we have not found it in ourselves to act. So let us work together and do it now. With enough good sense and goodwill, you and I can fix Medicare and Medicaid — and save Social Security. (Applause.)
Shorter version: We all promise to work together to not to piss off the AARP.
Bush goes on to discuss healthcare:
…I propose a standard tax deduction for health insurance that will be like the standard tax deduction for dependents. Families with health insurance will pay no income on payroll tax — or payroll taxes on $15,000 of their income. Single Americans with health insurance will pay no income or payroll taxes on $7,500 of their income. With this reform, more than 100 million men, women, and children who are now covered by employer-provided insurance will benefit from lower tax bills. At the same time, this reform will level the playing field for those who do not get health insurance through their job. For Americans who now purchase health insurance on their own, this proposal would mean a substantial tax savings — $4,500 for a family of four making $60,000 a year. And for the millions of other Americans who have no health insurance at all, this deduction would help put a basic private health insurance plan within their reach. Changing the tax code is a vital and necessary step to making health care affordable for more Americans. (Applause.)
In other words, tax breaks for people who buy insurance, but not for people who pay for healthcare costs out of pocket. Anybody else think the insurance lobby has something to do with this?
[Update: Of course, that’s how it is now anyway, so this isn’t actually a step back. Also, the tax break for having insurance will be accompanied by making employer-paid insurance count as taxable income. The upshot is that people will be getting roughly the same tax breaks on insurance they get now, but they’ll be able to choose plans that aren’t offered by their imployer, and the self-employed will be able get tax breaks too. Arnold Klingk explains what I didn’t understand, and I agree with most of what he says.]
…[W]e cannot fully secure the border unless we take pressure off the border — and that requires a temporary worker program. We should establish a legal and orderly path for foreign workers to enter our country to work on a temporary basis. As a result, they won’t have to try to sneak in, and that will leave Border Agents free to chase down drug smugglers and criminals and terrorists…
No kidding. It’s well known, too, that because illegal border crossings have become more difficult, people who sneak across are afraid they won’t be able to get back in if they leave, so they’re actually more likely to settle here instead of returning to their families in their homeland. The devil is in the details for stuff like this, but it’s possible that by making it easier to cross the border we’ll actually reduce the number of aliens in the country.
It’s in our vital interest to diversify America’s energy supply — the way forward is through technology. We must continue changing the way America generates electric power, by even greater use of clean coal technology, solar and wind energy, and clean, safe nuclear power. (Applause.) We need to press on with battery research for plug-in and hybrid vehicles, and expand the use of clean diesel vehicles and biodiesel fuel. (Applause.)
Biodiesel? I wonder if this is pandering to the farm states?
We must continue investing in new methods of producing ethanol — (applause) — using everything from wood chips to grasses, to agricultural wastes.
Ethanol. Yup! It’s about the farm states.
The rest was about the war. I need to read it more carefully before deciding if I have anything to say about it.
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