Before the address began, I watched the coverage on CSPAN. It was interesting because they had a gentleman from the Gallup Poll to discuss the top 5 concerns of the country. They were as follows: the economy, unemployment, dysfunctioning government, the federal debt/deficit, and health care. There was a Bing tracker that showed how everyone was responding to the address and shown in real time. I participated with other Americans and the combined votes were over 12 million and it never got too positive.
They also discuss who and the reasoning behind the guests that would be with the First Lady in the Gallery. They have these guests to add to the personal and emotional end of the speech as well as to further press the president’s talking points. They were Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, a small business owner, a machinist, and three individuals who were there to push his gun control agenda. It was actually interesting the way that everyone was preceded. The House of Representatives was there first and then they greeted the Senators. Once they were in, the procession of the President’s cabinet. It took nearly 15 minutes for everyone to come in, including the resident. There was a lot of hand shaking and kissing babies before it even got started.
He started off by saying that the state of the union was strong and then went into the economy, energy and climate control, national infrastructure, the housing market, education, immigration, women’s rights, raising the minimum wage and putting people back to work, encouraging fatherhood, terrorism, protecting against cyber attacks, poverty, human rights, gay rights, having women in combat, defending voting rights, and finished up on gun control.
Jumping from topic to topic was annoying but if he had expanded on each it would have taken a week to get through since he touched on so many different topics. The issues that I would have liked to have heard him expand on, he did to a certain degree but not the way I wanted to, especially gun control. He brought so much attention to a police officer shot 12 times and the mother of the girl who was killed after performing at the president’s inauguration that I actually felt the over use of the statement “They deserve a vote” to be annoying. I counted 8 times he repeated it. I realize the rhetoric was used to make his point but you can’t take a few lone instances or a random act of violence to tell us what we should do is it? This topic, according to the Bing tracker, that was most widely split by the opinions. Democrats liked it and Republicans/Independents did not.
Immigration was the only thing that he touched on that equally high for both Democrats and Republicans. I think the idea of immigration reform would be great. I’m all about it because this country was founded by immigrants but the fact that we have people coming to this country and not following the laws, and as he pointed out not learning how to speak English. I think that people should be allowed to come here but they should do it correctly and follow our laws. I really don’t know how they will be able to implement any sort of reform though. I see most of the illegals becoming voting liberals and
The one thing that I really did not like during his speech was his redistribution ideology. Just like he repeated his request in gun control, he also stated several times that the wealthy should pay more. Should they? I think that they should pay what they are required to pay per our tax laws without the loopholes. I agree with that but the way I see it is that they are what we should strive for in a Capitalistic economy. Why penalize or chastise them for making money? I think that if more Americans worked harder for the American Dream that we wouldn’t have this problem. Wealth should be earned. Why work hard if its just going to go to someone else who hasn’t maybe even worked a day in their lives…its not fair!
All in all I don’t think that the way that the President delivered his speech, what was said, or any promises that he made will really have any impact on the country’s course. He mentioned raising the minimum wage and tying it to the cost of living but I don’t see that doing anything more than causing more problems. If companies are forced in raising salaries without having an equal demand of production, then what would happen is there would be more people laid off and have more on Americans in a desperate choke hold of entitlements. Maybe if they would have dramatic entitlement reform people would be forced to find work…any work and there would be more taxes paid in, therefore correcting the deficit and allocating federal funding to go elsewhere. It would also allow us to take better care of our seniors by not stealing from Medicare.
No comments:
Post a Comment