LOS ANGELES, February 12, 2013 — Forget in advance what President Obama “said” in his 2013 State of the Union speech. Although he has yet to give it, the words will be exactly the same as every other speech he has given since 2004.
His words mean nothing; actions are what matter. The greatest speeches of all time were backed up by deeds. Let us look at what is not in President Obama’s speech.
Look past the platitudes. The two major issues are a teetering economy and global conflagrations; everything else is a distraction. What are Obama’s plans to fix the economy and keep America safe from terrorism? Anything else he talks about will be filler designed to appeal to interest groups and give his speech a gravitas it won’t have.
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There will be plenty of recycled buzzwords. Drinking games will have people drunk before they get half way through the speech: “forward,” “fairness,” “fair share,” “fair shot.” He will go on and on about millionaires and billionaires, common sense, simple math, and the importance of acting on his policies to Republicans and Democrats alike. This is the hollow part of the speech, and it will be almost the entire speech.
What about the “meat”? What are Obama’s actual plans to deal with economic and foreign policy threats in the here and now? Forget the long-term “vision thing.” What is he doing today?
Every minute spent on his three top priorities of investing in education, green energy, and healthcare are minutes not focused on the economy and the world. Investing in education means a top-down takeover of our children and more payoffs to teachers’ unions. Green energy means more money funelled into failed companies like Solyndra. The successes will not mentioned because there have been none.
Obamacare is already exploding the debt and proving every bit as disastrous to the American healthcare system as critics predicted. Obama will draw no links between any of this and the economy.
Will he tackle entitlements? Of course not. Will he set out plans to reform Social Security and Medicare? Absolutely not. Will he suggest raising the retirement age or consider partial privatization? Not a chance. The major cost drivers crippling the American economy are entitlements. Any solutions to the fiscal crisis Obama mentions will be useless if they do not include entitlement reform.
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He wanted a “balanced approach” to reducing the deficit and ended up with 100 percent tax hikes and 0 percent spending cuts. Now Obama wants more “revenues” and increased spending. He will not name a single spending cut he supports. He will rail against the sequester, which was his idea. Then he will demand higher taxes.
Obama will insist that the economy is moving in the right direction on the basis of cherry-picked economic indicators, although there is zero evidence of real growth. Employment and wages remain stagnant. Food and fuel prices are skyrocketing.
American foreign policy begins and ends with Obama’s victory lap over killing Osama bin Laden. The death of Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi was delayed by Obama “leading from behind” dithering. The policy of using predator drones is proper, which means Obama’s own liberal supporters are desperate to undermine it.
The truth about Benghazi remains hidden. Americans from Libya to Algeria are being murdered, al Qaida has metastasized across north Africa, and President Obama has no power to stop any of it. His foreign policy has only made it worse, and his apparent disengagement during the Benghazi attaces forces to ask whether he really cares about anything that happens in North Africa, even when it happens to Americans.
So what is there for President Obama to talk about? Why even bother speaking? He could follow precedent and just send Congress his speech in its written form.
He will speak for political reasons to gain an edge over his adversaries. He will tug at some heart strings and declare his solidarity with the American people. He will paint his critics as partisan, even deranged, expressing incredulity that anyone would question him on such issues as gun control. He will make disagreement on that topic tantamount to approving of children being murdered. He will call for “civility” and “coming together,” which means “shut up and get in line.”
Obama believes that once he has spoken, the thinking is done. True patriots will then line up behind him and give him their full support. That is how he can ignore vicious personal attacks by his supporters while while deploring as “un-civil” any disagreement from his critics. He insists that he accepts good ideas wherever they come from, the first post-partisan president.
This is Obama’s America. He gave a speech on inauguration day. Now he is giving another one, and next week he will have another one. This is just another speech in his eternal campaign.
For those looking for substance and honesty on the economy and the world stage, look somewhere else. The year is new, but the speech is the same one he has given every day for the last near-decade. It will be more taxes, spending, and excuses.
Even his supporters know he has absolutely nothing to say. They just don’t care. Sadly, the rest of us do care. We are begging for solutions. None will be offered until later in the evening when Florida Senator Marco Rubio gives the Republican response.
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Brooklyn born, Long Island raised, and now living in Los Angeles, Eric Golub is a politically conservative columnist, author, public speaker, satirist and comedian. Eric is the author of the book trilogy “Ideological Bigotry, “Ideological Violence,” and “Ideological Idiocy.”
Eric is 100% alcohol, tobacco, drug, and liberalism free. Follow Eric on Twitter @TYGRRRREXPRESS.
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