State of the Union - Reality Check

Friends and Fellow Americans:
On the 27th of January, 2010, the 44th President of the United States delivered his “State of the Union” address to an assembled Congress and invited guests. Here’s the reality of what should have been addressed, as opposed to re-election campaign speech we were given.

Mr. President, Members of the assembled Congress, and honored guests:
President Obama, you made an inspiring opening comment – “One year ago, I took office amid two wars, an economy rocked by severe recession, a financial system on the verge of collapse, and a government deeply in debt. Experts from across the political spectrum warned that if we did not act, we might face a second depression. So we acted – immediately and aggressively. And one year later, the worst of the storm has passed.”

One year later, the country has expanded itself into three wars – Iraq, Afghanistan, and the rise of forthright Americans against a Federal Government that has overstepped its legal boundaries. At present, the only reason our country is “financially solvent” is due to a Federal Reserve Board that maintains a mystical “unaccountability” to the citizens it purportedly services, and a Congress that is most willing to provide imaginary funding to a wide variety of non-essential services and imaginary projects.

One in eight Americans are out of work, Mr. President, not one in ten. And many Americans could have a better opportunity to locate work if our government would implement two simple practices.

First – But a moratorium on H and L series visas. Nor a reduction, but a 5 year complete ban. This would result in 375,000 jobs per year being returned to American citizens. These are jobs that Americans are qualified to do, would like to do, and are being prevented from doing by lower-paid visa carrying foreign nations. This, Mr. President and Congress, is not a resident alien who came for school, to find employment and become an American citizen, but someone hired SPECIFICALLY to do an American’s job at a fractional salary.

Second – Reduce the Corporate Income Tax. Reality has shown, that tax reductions, not “revenue enhancements" spur growth in our marketplace. Reducing the Corporate tax rate from it’s present progressive 15 – 38% for business incomes, to a stable flat 19%, would provide businesses across this great Republic to prosper. This reduction in wasted money, from a business standpoint, means added equipment and employees – employees, which in the long run CONTRIBUTE to the economy.

States, counties and municipalities across our land suffered over the past two years at the hand of government agencies with acronyms such as FannieMae, FreddieMac, HUD, and VA home loans. These are the very agents of the home loan/home value meltdown. The unfortunate injuries here, however, aren’t the people who got mortgages they couldn’t afford; it’s the communities that relied on the “Assessed Value” of the properties. When these collapsed, cities, counties and States fell short. In fact, Mr. President, its entities such as these “independent agencies” that compounded crippling debt to the states – along with some fiscal mismanagement of their own.

In 2008 and 2009, the Congress passed several measures of legislation, signed by the Executive office, which inflicted concerns on the American public. The American people were not consulted, nor wanting, to squander money on financial institutions and automobile manufacturers that spend billions of dollars in foreign investments or outsourcing of American jobs. And to assume that the Federal Government has the “right” to preserve the institutions is the height of hypocrisy by our elected officials. Mr. President, this isn’t about “partisanship and the shouting, or the pettiness”. This about accountability and responsibility, something seriously lacking in the confidence of the people, towards our government.

Mr. President, Americans across this nation go out and teach children, coach little league, and build cars and such to feel not only like they are contributing, but because we are Americans. It’s not because we have an obligation, or a duty, but because we have pride, we have a unique quality unknown anywhere else in the world – we have the AMERICAN SPIRIT. How about promising to bring that into the halls of Congress – instead of special interests and flaccid cabinet officials.

You wanted to talk about our economy – I’m more than willing:
Mr. President, I completely agree that one of the most critical issues is to stabilize the American economy. Let’s begin with a simple measure. With the exception of military pay and retirement/disability payments, I propose we FREEZE the Federal budget at its 2008 level for the three years. This includes the Congressional and Congressional Staff salaries, Cabinet salaries, and the myriad of budgetary line items that total an estimated 2.8 Trillion Dollars in the 2010 Federal Budget, and a similar amount in the presently proposed 2011 budget. Instead, lets limit the Federal Expenses to the 2008 Budget of 2.3 Trillion Dollars, thereby saving the taxpayers of our country 500 Billion in waste, being caused by Washington. This is a significant increase over the White House proposed 15 Billion Dollar “savings plan”. Conversely, it also isn’t “a hatchet job” – its responsible reduction in Government spending.

Second - according to the United States Constitution, that parchment you have sworn to “uphold” – Congress shall have the authority to “Regulate Commerce with Foreign Nations”, that means to tax goods going out of or coming into this country. Try using this to fund our government, as it was intended; instead of “revenue enhancements” otherwise known as taxing the taxpayer. The American public is tired of being cheated by the so-called “free trade agreements” we have that unfairly penalize American production.

Third - Let‘s return the ownership of entities such as Chrysler and General Motors away from ANY government control. You did not “rescue” the financial system, nor the automobile industry. The Government has no authority to “hijack” the public interest, and the public interest does not want government control of our business entities. You, Mr. President, have no grounds for enforcing pay standards or benefits to corporate executives. You, sir, get your paycheck at the “pleasure of the people”, not the other way around.

We the people are a curious lot, and at present, a rightly untrusting lot. Tax cuts should indicate that our personal money increases, that our purchases cost less. Yet, we are paying more for products and services because of “revenue enhancements”. Mr. President and members of Congress, stop playing with the English language – if your intention is to steal money from the people, don’t pretend it’s a “revenue enhancement”, just point the gun and tell us to empty our wallet. We’ll remember – at the ballot box.

On the subject of “saving or creating” jobs: I don’t think I would call putting people back to work that should have never lost their jobs – if Congress did ITS job – a saving grace. And the vast majority of Americans are not taking the words of economists that the Stimulus Bill has helped avert disaster. We have a much more intricate relationship to finance; it’s our personal and business checkbooks. Yes, Congress – we can balance these pesky items, even if you can’t.

Likewise, the American people do not want or need an Employer Free Choice Act. You might want to remember, that while the US Constitution trumps State Constitutions, likewise the State Constitution trumps Federal laws – consider the 10th Amendment. At present, 22 states have “right to work laws”, with 5 of those states having that right granted through their State Constitutions. You cannot pass legislation that removes those rights in those states, so it would be unwise and unfair to burden the other 28 states with laws pertaining to only them. That, by the way, violates the intent of the Federal Constitution – where all laws are applied equally to the States. Only 12.9 per cent of the American workforce belongs to unions, the American employee pool has no pressing need to be pushed into a box that they don’t choose themselves.

Infrastructure, Economic Investment and Energy –
America’s future, like other world locations, finds these three topics eternally tied together. We need better and safer roads, faster general transportation, and secure energy sources. And the people of America have to pay the price. America is a superhighway, not just of asphalt covered stretches across the land, but of innovation as well.

High speed rail service across this great nation would be an excellent means of transportation, and one that Americans would be readily able to benefit from. Now let’s do it in the American style. We would like to see the major railroads work up a plan to develop this, at a cost savings to the people. We’re not going sit by and suffer through an administrative boondoggle, lost monies because the Government is too involved, and we don’t want “Amtrak 2.0”. On the same note, America could be better served in its rail capacity by simply allowing our rail giants to bring regular passenger service back to the table, in competition with Amtrak.

We need to invest in tomorrow’s energy and infrastructure – not just in its transportation on outdated utility poles and service pipes, but in control and usage as well. The citizens of our country realize this, and the costs that we’ll incur. But having a bureaucrat overseeing things doesn’t impress us. We need a reality check on government interference with innovation, not a government oversight on progress.

America has energy reserves we can use, while we are waiting for tomorrow’s innovation. We need to tap our supplies, rather than be reliant on the whims of foreign powers. Let’s reopen our nation’s resources, rather than pay for the privilege of being a user of some other nation’s assets. While some might fret over their backyard, America should seriously consider developing new nuclear power plants. This is a safe and sustainable power system being used around the world, yet we, as the first nation to develop it, have stopped.

Education –
If America is going to remain competitive, not only here, but abroad, the education of our children is a national priority. But we need to understand that education doesn’t mean turning our children over to an education system whose primary goal is simply to make sure the kids can pass a yearly test.

Education is not about making sure “everyone’s on the same page”. It’s about helping our children reach their potential. We need better schools, both generally speaking and in the charter school developments; we need teachers that are interested in extoling the virtues of learning and of our country’s heritage of life, not teaching some form of public indoctrination spouted by a self-important Department of Education. We need an education system ripe with the input of parents – the most important educators in a child’s life; not devoid of family morality and replaced by some form of hypothetical national “cleansing” ritual.

Mr. President, there is a present and persistent reason for home-schooling in these United States. Simply put, it’s because our government can’t do its job. Look back, sir, at the level of education and understanding children graduating schools in the 1940’s and 1950’s had, and compare it to the abysmal level of education of today. Children didn’t have the “benefit” of calculators, computers, and “tolerance” classes – but they achieved a great deal. Let’s not reform education, let’s reinstitute EDUCATION.

I have seen children graduating from today’s high schools with levels of simple understanding to bring the question – “What were they doing for the last twelve years?” Can you truly claim we are doing a service when today’s kids have to take remedial courses, after high school, just to enter college? We need Reading, Writing and Arithmetic – without the aid of electronics, in our elementary and junior high schools; not sex education, diversity training and global dynamics. Let’s give the responsibility of teaching back to the parents and teaching staffs instead of administrators, superintendents, and governmental “intellects”. Let’s give our children a future.

Healthcare –
America is in need of a healthcare correction. Let’s not call it a reform, because Congress has already ruined that term.

First, we need to look at the ONE area of healthcare where Congress legally can intercede on the American behalf. Article one of the Constitution grants Congress the right to regulate commerce between states. Any company selling insurance across state lines falls within this “Commerce Clause”, so Congress can, rightly and justifiably ask why the same insurance policy costs $100 difference between California and Maine for the exact same coverage to a set of similar persons. They can just as properly ask why certain medications or procedures aren’t covered in the same way, from state to state. They can even, legally, require that the Commerce Department establish a realistic range of abilities for insurance companies to comply with if they wish to sell over state lines.

There presently exists, in each state, a public option already. It’s called Medicaid – a federally mandated and significantly underfunded Federal Mandate. The states should have the option, at their discretion, to permit individuals and families to participate in it, of their own will and cost. We don’t, however, need government penalties or “revenue enhancements” on our citizens and businesses to create yet another “federal mandate” - this time on our personal liberties.

While we are at it, one area that America needs REFORM is in the area of the courts. Civil litigation and criminal trials are causing a crisis within the nation. Americans are going into legal battles over malpractice, faulty medicines and the like – only to get “ripped off” by their own attorney’s in the form of fees. If there is one area where the Government might step in, it would be the area people have been asking for – tort reform.

Mr. President, you make a broad pitch in wanting to “reform” government – posting White House visitors online, talking about limits on lobbyists and ending earmarks. We’re tired of the rhetoric; signing pork-laden spending bills while claiming to desire an end; making former lobbyists part of your inner circle, while claiming to keep them at bay. The reality is, you might wish to try matching not only your words to your actions, but listen to a simple three word and actually trying its comprehensive message. As former first lady Nancy Reagan boldly stated, Mr. President – JUST SAY NO.

National Security –
America is at a cross roads. We want better security from a government that has committed itself to that goal, but we similarly want our liberty. If our intelligence community is so vaulted, why did we have an attempted terrorist attack over one of our larger cities? Mr. President, we need to stop dropping the ball – it’s in your court, try using it wisely.

America has security issues on two very distinct fronts – at home and overseas. On the home front, we have an explosive illegal immigration problem. Congress is not going to solve it by waving a magic wand and making citizens of people who flagrantly violate our laws. It’s “put up or shut up time” – put up the fence and enforce the laws, or quit and go home to Chicago. This isn’t complex, Mr. President, quite the opposite. America and her citizens are tired of being a “dumping ground” for non-action by our Commander-in-Chief and Congressional leaders, the people who took an oath to UPHOLD and defend the Constitution. Arbitrarily granting immunity to foreign nations by looking the other way is a deafening roar to the public that you are either ignorant of the people, or that you don’t fear the ballot box. You might wish to reconsider those options, because “We the People” don’t fear either of those options towards Washington. We embrace the opportunity to voice our opinion in November.

On matters of security outside of our borders, we need a single voice, a voice with a strength and character that reminds everyone that we are America, not a part of some global oligarchy. Mr. President - the United Nations, NATO, and other allies might work with us, but they DO NOT represent America. We need a solitary voice that references America, not a global apology tour.

Members of the Senate and the House of Representatives:
We all saw, over this last session, the ease in which you skillfully avoided considering your constituents when it came to arguing the “important” matters of state. You might want to consider that in this election year, the “Astroturf, as you like to refer to your voting public, has not only the power, but also the DESIRE to stop looking the other way to your defiant behaviors. You should, at all times remember, when primaries and general elections come – it is the voters that “have the touch”, not the special interest groups, lobbying firms, nor the political parties. I will simply add that we have more equal confidence and reliance on the intellect of the voters within the various Congressional Districts and States, as we have disdain for the cavalier manner in which our Congress accords itself.

God bless this great nation and her people, always.

JON GREENSPON