State of the Union

Transcript of President's Address
Transcript of Democratic Response

Once again that time of year has come where the President stands before both houses of congress and gives the annual address. This year, like every year, the president attempts to promote his aggenda and sway both the voters and the representatives. This time the tone was different. This was not a speach of unbridled authority but one where strength and timidness teatered back and forth. In previous years he had the congress and his direction was more apt to be followed. Now he must persuade the oposing party to follow his lead. This will definately be tough to do when you are polling in the basement.

I didn't find anything new until we got to the topic of healthcare. Why choose this as a topic of tax cuts? I find it rather bold to go before the Democratic congress and suggest a tax cut to achieve what has been their dream government program. As a conservative I was impressed that someone would offer something without creating a whole new level of burocracy. I don't want government run healthcare. As great as our nation is, when ever the government runs it, it costs to much and you get to little. There are already plenty of systems for delivering healthcare, all we need is better cost control.
I haven't heard anything about how this proposal was recieved. My favorate line on the subject was this..

And in all we do, we must remember that the best healthcare decisions are
made not by government and insurance companies, but by patients and their
doctors.

Our HMO system seems to have forgotten who the customer is and what basic front line healthcare really is. Let us not forget that the patient is ultimately the paying customer and more needs to be done in the area of customer service.

Then we went off on immigration. This is one area that the president and I don't see eye to eye. You see, we already have a guest worker program in our VISA system. Employers that need help can request someone from outside our nation. The problem is that no one knows how many people we need or at what jobs because we have so many illegally here gumming up the system. If we need more workers, then by all means increase the number of entry. Let them follow our laws and meet our requirements as workers wishing to come to our nation under our systems. Don't expect me to welcome anyone who has lied, cheated, and broken countless laws. How are we to ever trust a person who has found it so easy to be untrustworthy? They did not have charactor enough to avoid breaking our laws in the first place.
I constantly hear that this problem can not simply be solved by walls and fences. The problem is easily solved by denying wage deductions for non matching employees. The problem is easily solved by denying housing to non sponsored workers. If we take away housing and enployment then they will deport themselves as readily as they imported themselves. We will then be able to create a guest worker program Mr. President. We will then know how many guests we need.

Let's talk energy. We have plenty of oil right here in the good old US. We really don't need to encircle the globe with tankers. We simply need to drill. How many times will the congress deny us the right to do just that. "The Not In My Back Yard" mentality is slowly destroying our nation. I have offered up solutions to this before. I wont repeat them here but we must do more to manage our own energy here at home.
Oregon State University perfected a plan for creating a Nuclear reactor energy producing station that would reduce our hazzardous waste issues to about a hundred years. Far reducing the waste issue of tens of thousands that the current designs all over the planet are utilizing. If we truly want to do something great for our planet, why don't we take advantage of this technology.

I'll stop here for today. I know there is much more that needs saying.
What say you, so far?