Obama, in the first few paragraphs talked about the "recovery" in the country, a recovery that isn't really happening. He touted the creation of six million jobs, almost all of which are low paying, no benefit ones that don't help anyone to get out of the mess we are in. So far, this speech is everything I expected. Here's some excerpts from the speech:
Tonight, thanks to the grit and determination of the American people, there is much progress to report. After a decade of grinding war, our brave men and women in uniform are coming home. After years of grueling recession, our businesses have created over six million new jobs. We buy more American cars than we have in five years, and less foreign oil than we have in twenty. Our housing market is healing, our stock market is rebounding, and consumers, patients, and homeowners enjoy stronger protections than ever before.
Our housing market is not much better than four years ago with few buying houses to live in rather than flip. The old wars are ending but new ones are just a heartbeat away. We are buying more cars and our addiction to foreign oil is lower. The stock market is rebounding only due to market interference and not genuine recovery. Homeowners are still getting screwed on a daily basis so that statement is an outright lie.
Together, we have cleared away the rubble of crisis, and can say with renewed confidence that the state of our union is stronger.
Yeah right.
But we gather here knowing that there are millions of Americans whose hard work and dedication have not yet been rewarded. Our economy is adding jobs – but too many people still can’t find full-time employment. Corporate profits have rocketed to all-time highs – but for more than a decade, wages and incomes have barely budged.
It's been forty years not ten, dumbass. That's a lot more than a decade.
It is our generation’s task, then, to reignite the true engine of America’s economic growth – a rising, thriving middle class.
Which is all but gone now.
On Medicare, I’m prepared to enact reforms that will achieve the same amount of health care savings by the beginning of the next decade as the reforms proposed by the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles commission. Already, the Affordable Care Act is helping to slow the growth of health care costs. The reforms I’m proposing go even further. We’ll reduce taxpayer subsidies to prescription drug companies and ask more from the wealthiest seniors. We’ll bring down costs by changing the way our government pays for Medicare, because our medical bills shouldn’t be based on the number of tests ordered or days spent in the hospital – they should be based on the quality of care that our seniors receive. And I am open to additional reforms from both parties, so long as they don’t violate the guarantee of a secure retirement. Our government shouldn’t make promises we cannot keep – but we must keep the promises we’ve already made.
I'm all for this except for raising the eligibility age as this will further destabilize the program by eliminating healthier, younger seniors from the risk pool and thereby raising rates.
After years of talking about it, we are finally poised to control our own energy future. We produce more oil at home than we have in 15 years. We have doubled the distance our cars will go on a gallon of gas, and the amount of renewable energy we generate from sources like wind and solar – with tens of thousands of good, American jobs to show for it. We produce more natural gas than ever before – and nearly everyone’s energy bill is lower because of it. And over the last four years, our emissions of the dangerous carbon pollution that threatens our planet have actually fallen.
I am all for renewable energy which we should be spending a lot more on development. The main reason we have more natural gas is because of fracking which may be dangerous in it's own right.
But for the sake of our children and our future, we must do more to combat climate change. Yes, it’s true that no single event makes a trend. But the fact is, the 12 hottest years on record have all come in the last 15. Heat waves, droughts, wildfires, and floods – all are now more frequent and intense. We can choose to believe that Superstorm Sandy, and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen were all just a freak coincidence. Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science – and act before it’s too late.
According to people like George Will and other other climate change deniers, the last decade has not been the warmest on record so we can't even decide when numbers are correct. "Are you sure that's a seven and not some upside down four?" asks every climate change denier idiot. There is no doubt the world is getting warmer at this point and any person who is saying otherwise is really no better than the fools who deny the Holocaust or the Moon landing.
Tonight, I propose a “Fix-It-First” program to put people to work as soon as possible on our most urgent repairs, like the nearly 70,000 structurally deficient bridges across the country. And to make sure taxpayers don’t shoulder the whole burden, I’m also proposing a Partnership to Rebuild America that attracts private capital to upgrade what our businesses need most: modern ports to move our goods; modern pipelines to withstand a storm; modern schools worthy of our children. Let’s prove that there is no better place to do business than the United States of America. And let’s start right away.
There are HOW MANY BRIDGES READY TO COLLAPSE? Holy crap! Do you know why we haven't fixed any of this yet, by the way? Because the Tea Party morons don't want to spend money "we don't have" to fix anything but would rather pay down the debt first. Incredible. Obama has tried to get money for these programs but the GOP, and particularly the Tea Party, want no part of it. If another bridge goes down remember that next time you vote.
Part of our rebuilding must also involve our housing sector. Today, our housing market is finally healing from the collapse of 2007. Home prices are rising at the fastest pace in six years, home purchases are up nearly 50 percent, and construction is expanding again.
This is an outright lie. Home prices are rising slightly, in some markets like DC, but are still in freefall in places like Detroit and Las Vegas. Purchases are up because no money loans are back which the rich are using to buy houses to flip or rent. Sooner, rather than later, this will have the same ripple effect as 2008. A crash appears to be imminent if this kind of stuff is still going on.
Real reform means establishing a responsible pathway to earned citizenship – a path that includes passing a background check, paying taxes and a meaningful penalty, learning English, and going to the back of the line behind the folks trying to come here legally.
And real reform means fixing the legal immigration system to cut waiting periods, reduce bureaucracy, and attract the highly-skilled entrepreneurs and engineers that will help create jobs and grow our economy.
In other words, an immigration plan that has no real hope of success as the GOP will gut anything meaningful from it. They like the idea of people with PHD's staying, the rest can starve as far as they are concerned.
But we can’t stop there. We know our economy is stronger when our wives, mothers, and daughters can live their lives free from discrimination in the workplace, and free from the fear of domestic violence. Today, the Senate passed the Violence Against Women Act that Joe Biden originally wrote almost 20 years ago. I urge the House to do the same. And I ask this Congress to declare that women should earn a living equal to their efforts, and finally pass the Paycheck Fairness Act this year.
The House is currently holding up the VAW Act for partisan reasons, causing Eric Cantor a headache as women are calling his office non stop to complain. Good.
We know our economy is stronger when we reward an honest day’s work with honest wages. But today, a full-time worker making the minimum wage earns $14,500 a year. Even with the tax relief we’ve put in place, a family with two kids that earns the minimum wage still lives below the poverty line. That’s wrong. That’s why, since the last time this Congress raised the minimum wage, nineteen states have chosen to bump theirs even higher.
Tonight, let’s declare that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty, and raise the federal minimum wage to $9.00 an hour. This single step would raise the incomes of millions of working families. It could mean the difference between groceries or the food bank; rent or eviction; scraping by or finally getting ahead. For businesses across the country, it would mean customers with more money in their pockets. In fact, working folks shouldn’t have to wait year after year for the minimum wage to go up while CEO pay has never been higher. So here’s an idea that Governor Romney and I actually agreed on last year: let’s tie the minimum wage to the cost of living, so that it finally becomes a wage you can live on.
If we actually tie the rate to the cost of living, the minimum wage would be at least $12 an hour not nine but it's a step in the right direction. And contrary to everyone out there who has no idea how economics work, yes less people may be hired initially, but as more people have more money, they spend more which creates jobs, not tax breaks. In the end we all win, except for the uber rich who may make a token bit less. Boo Hoo.
It has been two months since Newtown. I know this is not the first time this country has debated how to reduce gun violence. But this time is different. Overwhelming majorities of Americans – Americans who believe in the 2nd Amendment – have come together around commonsense reform – like background checks that will make it harder for criminals to get their hands on a gun. Senators of both parties are working together on tough new laws to prevent anyone from buying guns for resale to criminals. Police chiefs are asking our help to get weapons of war and massive ammunition magazines off our streets, because they are tired of being outgunned.
Other than the last statement, I agree with him for the most part. So not a bad speech but not earth shattering either. So how did the GOP do? Think what would happen if the Titanic hit the Hindenburg which cartwheeled into the World Trade Center. It was that bad.
Last time it was Bobby Jindal coming across as an Indian Howdy Doody and sank any hope for higher office for a while. Now comes Marco Rubio and the Gulp heard around the world. My God, I haven't seen someone sweat so bad on camera since the Nixon/ Kennedy debate. Was the air conditioning off? Rubio sweated hard, constantly smacked his dry lips and even had to lunge off camera briefly for some water which made Polar Springs very happy. It was a dreadful looking performance. What about his speech, you ask? Just as bad if not worse. Here it is for your viewing:
Here are some parts of the speech:
Presidents in both parties – from John F. Kennedy to Ronald Reagan – have known that our free enterprise economy is the source of our middle class prosperity.
This idea – that our problems were caused by a government that was too small – it's just not true. In fact, a major cause of our recent downturn was a housing crisis created by reckless government policies.
None of that is true. The crisis was not caused by Fannie and Freddie, but by banks repackaging sub prime loans and passing them off as AAA rated. That is what killed us. The GOP says otherwise, against all the facts as usual. Obama's plan is actually one that could work, while the Republicans seem determined to follow Europe into the abyss with austerity measures that we know do not work.
For example, Obamacare was supposed to help middle class Americans afford health insurance. But now, some people are losing the health insurance they were happy with. And because Obamacare created expensive requirements for companies with more than 50 employees, now many of these businesses aren't hiring. Not only that; they're being forced to lay people off and switch from full-time employees to part-time workers.
Obamacare is deeply flawed but only in that it didn't go far enough. If it had been done like it had here in MA, things would much better. By the way, my health care premium did not go up one penny this year. How many out there can say that? And as for the layoffs, companies have been moving people to part time, as it's cheaper, for more than a decade now and are using Obamacare as the scapegoat.
One of the best ways to encourage growth is through our energy industry. Of course solar and wind energy should be a part of our energy portfolio. But God also blessed America with abundant coal, oil and natural gas. Instead of wasting more taxpayer money on so-called "clean energy" companies like Solyndra, let's open up more federal lands for safe and responsible exploration. And let's reform our energy regulations so that they're reasonable and based on common sense. If we can grow our energy industry, it will make us energy independent, it will create middle class jobs and it will help bring manufacturing back from places like China.
Yeah because every company ever always succeeds, doesn't it Marco? No one ever goes bankrupt? It is not a waste to invest in new ideas, some of which will fail. We've been doing since the beginning of time and it's called progress. Grow up.
And we agree with the President that we should lower our corporate tax rate, which is one of the highest in the world, so that companies will start bringing their money and their jobs back here from overseas.
Yeah because 0 isn't low enough apparently.
Every dollar our government borrows is money that isn't being invested to create jobs. And the uncertainty created by the debt is one reason why many businesses aren't hiring.
The President loves to blame the debt on President Bush. But President Obama created more debt in four years than his predecessor did in eight.
The real cause of our debt is that our government has been spending 1 trillion dollars more than it takes in every year. That's why we need a balanced budget amendment.
More GOP nonsense, none of which is true. And a balanced budget amendment would bankrupt this country, idiot. The USA is not a business or a home. Stop treating it like those.
Republicans have offered a detailed and credible plan that helps save Medicare without hurting today's retirees. Instead of playing politics with Medicare, when is the President going to offer his plan to save it? Tonight would have been a good time for him to do it.
Excuse me while I laugh hysterically at that. The Paul Ryan Plan for Medicare would destroy it and was voted for by every single member of the House and most of the Senate who are also Republican. Oh and it was hated by everyone who actually read it.
We don't have to raise taxes to avoid the President's devastating cuts to our military. Republicans have passed a plan that replaces these cuts with responsible spending reforms.
A plan with austerity measures only. These guys know they did lose the last election right?
The GOP has not changed their message one iota. This dinosaur of a party has little life in it and is only be kept alive at all by old, white fuckwads who should just die already and get it over with it. You're literally killing the rest of us.
So there it is. I know Paul Rand gave the Tea Party response, which is odd as Rubio is a Tea Party member as well. Anyway, I do not care what the man had to say as it will just be more of the same crap that Rubio vomited forth, an action I am surprised didn't actually happen. We are headed for a cliff and these guys are the only ones who stand between us and it. God help us all.
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