State of the Union - Poor

President Obama went before the country and Congress Tuesday night to give the annual State of the Union address. What we got was what was expected...
more of the same as the last  four years..bigger government and more spending. The president used a code word for spending...he called it investing. Even before the address House Speaker John Boehner said, "If government spending were the tonic for all our ills, this would have been solved a long time ago.”

The president said the country is on the mend. A quick look at some stats might make one think differently:

• National Debt is $16.5 trillion and counting
• Projected Federal debt in 2022 due to Obama's spending spree is projected to be $25.4 trillion
• Number of Americans on food stamps - 47.5 million
• Number of Americans unemployed, underemployed or have given up looking for work - 22.7 million
• National unemployment rate is 7.9%
• Number of Americans unemployed - 12.3 million
• number of unemployed veterans - 844,000
• Your share of the National Debt - $53,380
• Decline in median income per household since Obama took office - $3,924
• Average price of a gallon of gas has increased 92% since Obama took office in 2009.

This doesn't look much like a country on the mend.

The president used an old line in the State of the Union address when talking of his new spending plan. He said, “Nothing I’m proposing tonight should increase our deficit by a single dime. It’s not a bigger government we need, but a smarter government that sets priorities and invests in broad-based growth.” Did he not say in 2009 that Obamacare would not increase our premiums by a "single dime" or was I dreaming? The only way he can do that is, again, raise taxes.

On gun control the president got the liberal crowd riled up when he went down the list of victims from former Arizona Representative Gabby Gifford to the Newtown, Conn. shooting victims saying, "they deserve a vote." He probably won't get it, at least not all he wants.

President Obama said he wants the minimum wage raised to $9 an hour. Not going to happen...would be devastating to small businesses.

Automatic spending cuts, known as sequestration are poised to hit March 1 unless a deal is reached to replace them. The cuts were put in place last year during the negotiations to keep the government functioning. The president wanted sequestration, and signed the bill into law. The thought was the cuts were so drastic, especially to the Defense Dept., that congress would reach a better deal before the March deadline. During the fiscal cliff talks the president agreed to future cuts if he got the tax increase on the wealthy. he got the tax hikes, but is balking on the spending cuts he promised. 

So, Some Republicans are talking about letting the cuts simply take effect, though the Pentagon will bear the brunt of the hit. Other Republicans want to replace the scheduled cuts with a separate package of cuts.

Obama wants to include tax increases in any package. He has also urged Congress to draft a short-term bill if no deal can be reached by March 1. Republican leaders are fighting this demand.

The sequestration cuts amount to about $84 billion dollars, about 4-5% of the total government expenditure. One would think  there is that much in wasteful spending and cost overruns...letting the sequestration take affect might not be a bad thing.

If you want to check Mr. Obama on the facts of his speech, click: Fact Check.Org

                                   



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