I found two great pieces on the State of the Union address last night (I read the leaked version but didn’t bother finding a TV to watch):
“State of the Union speeches are typically unimpressive and unmemorable. Last night’s address by President Obama was in that tradition. While his delivery was fine, the speech itself was mediocre — flat, undisciplined and unfocused, at times pedestrian and banal, with goals seemingly pulled out of thin air (e.g., by 2035, 80 percent of America’s electricity will come from clean-energy sources).”
“PRESIDENT OBAMA entered office promising to be a different kind of politician – one who would speak honestly with the American people about the hard choices they face and would help make those hard calls. Tuesday night’s State of the Union Addresswould have been the moment to make good on that promise. He disappointed.
It’s not that everything he said in the speech was wrong; on the contrary, we agree with much of it. To remain competitive in the world, and to reverse the trend of rising inequality at home, the government will have to invest, as Mr. Obama proposed, in scientific research, education and infrastructure. To stay safe abroad, the country can’t stint on national defense or foreign aid. Republican visions of dramatically smaller government are unrealistic and potentially dangerous.
But where will the money come from? “We will make sure this is fully paid for,” Mr. Obama said as he grandly pledged to “redouble” road and bridge repair. With higher gasoline taxes? Traditionally, that has been the way. Mr. Obama didn’t elaborate.”
However, I think the best summary, that also is the longest amount of time I want to spend reviewing the speech, goes to a Tweet from Conor Rogers:
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Comments
"Republican visions of dramatically smaller government are unrealistic and potentially dangerous."
Government size is a byproduct of an elitist world view. Somewhere along the line citizens allowed government to break the constitutional limits to its role and it has now entered every aspect of our lives. From food to toilets, to one way streets, to when and how we should receive medical care.
In just the last week in Southern California here are just a few of the proposed new laws and regulations:
– Home Owners Assn created a regulation banning SFR homeowners from having "clutter" in their houses. The HOA now has the right to come in to inspect and literally "clean house" in its members' residences
– CA legislature considering making it illegal for pedestrians to use electronic devices while walking
– Local city council reviewing an ordinance prohibiting smoking out of doors
Of course last week Obama issued an Executive Order ostensibly to cut unnecessary regulation. But buried in the same order was the new directive to evaluate regulatory rules and outcomes based on social justice, human dignity, and fairness.
I think the time has come to put the genie back into the bottle at all levels of government.
"It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his
cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences."
—C. S. Lewis
Republican visions of dramatically smaller government are unrealistic and potentially dangerous.
That's a real stretch, considering that today's world was brought to you by people who attained the ability to do so without a Department of Education (or 20-student classrooms).
And that's just one Department, of several, that we can do without.
The writer of the above statement has bought into the Biggest Lie of All … that a relative few Best and Brightest in DC are so much smarter than the rest of us, that we should just turn over our decision-making authority and resources to them and let them solve our problems — even the most individual-specific ones — FOR us.
Where we have tried that, we have nearly always made things worse than they were (including in education) because there is no way … regardless of compassionate intent … that those few BB's have the capability to accurately perceive/assess/resolve the problems of 300 million lifetimes. Compared to that, going to the moon was a mere exercise in LEGO(TM) building.
It's time to heed Paul Ryan's call for a return to LIMITED government … for so much of what we have government handle, AIN'T THEIR JOB to handle … but OURS.
It's time we took our repsonsibility, seriously.