The State of the Union, 2014. So how do you see things? How is the Prez doing? Is it my imagination or does it seem there is just a lot less rancor this year than in years past?
Your comments please. How do you see the state of our union?
26 Thoughts to “The State of the Union Address, 2014”
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Blogroll
- 9500Liberty
- Bacons' Rebellion Blogspot
- Bearing Drift
- Blue Virginia
- Citizen Tom
- Counts of Monte Cristo. The
- Derecho, The
- Dixie Pig, The
- My Side of the Fence
- My Star Journey
- NARAL Pro-Choice VA Blog
- New Dominion Project
- Nova Common Sense
- NovaTownHall Blog
- One Libertarians's Point of View by Al Alborn
- Pete Candland's Blog
- Potomac Local
- Prince William Muckraker
- PW Conservation Alliance
- PWC Moms
- PWCPolitics.com
- PWCPolitics.com
- Red NoVA
- Shad Plank, The
- She the People
- State of NoVA, the
- The Jeffersoniad
- Townhall
- VEA Daily Reports
- VivianPaige
- WDGolden.com
- You, Me and the Lamp Post
“The lowest unemployment rate in over five years.” Technically true per the BLS…if you ignore the actual unemployment rate and total unemployed. The rate is low because more people dropped out of seeking unemployment, not because they got jobs.
“A rebounding housing market.” Really? He really believes that?
‘A manufacturing sector that’s adding jobs for the first time since the 1990s.” As I say in arguments on the internet…. “Got any evidence to back that up?”
“More oil produced at home than we buy from the rest of the world – the first time that’s happened in nearly twenty years.” DESPITE Obama’s attempts to stop it….
“Our deficits – cut by more than half.” HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Sure, if you admit that is because you spent so much money, we reached the debt limit in May and raising that limit happened during the next fiscal year…where over $320 Billion was spent in 24 hours….
“And for the first time in over a decade, business leaders around the world have declared that China is no longer the world’s number one place to invest; America is.” The problem is that those are CHINESE business leaders buying stuff……
re: Deficits
That sort of had to happen. I salute the president for what he has done with the economy in such a short time. It could have taken a decade or more if history repeated itself.
We are a terribly divided nation. The main reason is that some of us want to deal with the world as it is and to try to make it better, and some of us can’t deal with reality and want to return to the past.
I’m no liberal, I’m no Democrat, but increasingly I can see that this is the way things are. A large chunk of rural America has no real plan for the future, fears the future and fears change, and desperately wants to hold onto myths. To pretend that things like homophobia, or less sex or abortions, are part of what once “made us great”. And the most harmful myth of all – the idea that any economic ill or waste can be cured by letting rich people manage all the money, and not using government to keep our ship from running into icebergs every decade or so.
No President can or will unite us. America will continue to limp along towards the future, and drag its discontented citizens along, whose standards of living improve continually but who kick and scream all along the way, wishing to return to the naivite of their youth.
Well, Rick, I tried to find flaw in what you said, and by George, I can’t. The wealth part needs to go in BOLD!
@Cargosquid
When did the BLS change the way they report the unemployment rate? And yes there are people dropping out – how many of those people are part of the increasing wave of boomers who are retiring?
Do not get the deficit and debt confused – they are two different things. The debt does not increase the deficit.
Excellent points, Pat!
I thought he did a good job actually, went for low hanging fruit and republicans are still bitching.
A very well deserved standing ovation for Sergeant First Class Cory Remsburg – Unfortunately many of us forget the sacrifices that are given by our military men and woman.
A rebounding housing market.” Really? He really believes that?
@Cargo
Regional increases in existing home resale is happening. New home sale price points still too high. “Rebounding” might be a bit of an exaggeration but who doesn’t when trying to make a point?
I didn’t watch.
I notice all the photo’s taken with Robertson of Duck Dynasty fame – I wonder if the likes of vitter or graham even took the time to shake the hand of Sergeant First Class Cory Remsburg – but they made sure they had the time to have the photo taken with Robertson.
I think like all State of the Union speeches, this one must be taken with a grain of salt. While I am no student of history, despite having lived a big chunk of it, I am not sure there has ever been a president who chose to paint a glum picture of the state of the union. Much like President Obama’s address last night, President George Washington, in the first ever State of the Union letter delivered on January 8, 1790, discussed protection of the citizens against “depridations” against the citizens by, “certain hostile tribes of Indians”, the need for and compensation to military officers and enlisted personnel, the need for a uniform set of rules for immigration, the national debt, intercourse with foreign powers, the use of foreign inventions and the need to produce such things here, the need for education and, if necessary, aid to seminaries and perhaps the establishment of a national university. In discussing education, President Washington stated:
“Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of publick happiness. In one, in which the measures of government receive their impression so immediately from the sense of the community, as in our’s, it is proportionately essential. To the security of a free Constitution it contributes in various ways: By convincing those who are entrusted with the publick administration, that every valuable end of government is best answered by the enlightened confidence of the people: And by teaching the people themselves to know, and to value their own rights; to discern and provide against invasions of them; to distinguish between oppression and the necessary exercise of lawful authority; between burthens proceeding from a disregard to their convenience, and those resulting from the inevitable exigencies of society; to discriminate the spirit of liberty from that of licentiousness, cherishing the first, avoiding the last, and uniting a speedy, but temperate vigilance against encroachments, with an inviolable respect to the laws.
He also called for the advancement of agriculture, commerce and manufacturing as well as giving due attention to the Post Office and Post Road to facilitate intercourse with the distant parts of our nation.
President Washington ended the first State of the Union with this statement:
“The welfare of our country is the great object to which our cares and efforts ought to be directed.– And I shall derive great satisfaction from a cooperation with you, in the pleasing though arduous task of ensuring to our fellow citizens the blessings which they have a right to expect, from a free and equal government.”
How is it that we have drifted so far from this comity? Why have we allowed such rancor among those we have elected to represent our best interest? President Washington’s closing statement should cause all of us, including the Congress, to pause and think how we can best, “[ensure] to our fellow citizens the blessing which they have a right to expect from a free and equal government.”
Is this so much different than what President Obama said last night? Perhaps the biggest difference is that President Washington did all of this in a speech that probably took 15 minutes.
Interesting, George, thanks.
@Moon-howler
What he’s done with the economy? You mean….nothing?
Any growth is happening despite his efforts. We are not recovering. The economy is, at best, flat. All positive reports from the gov’t, so far, have been spin.
Our actual unemployment rate is about 11%. Our inflation is much higher than reported.
All sorts of initiatives that have been blocked by Congress.
Here’s mine, a short version :
My fellow Americans, the state of our nation is strong. Very strong. We’re the most powerful and most prosperous nation on Earth. We must be doing something right.
That’s not to say that everyone here feels secure or happy. Many of you are overgrown babies who wish to remake the modern world into your image. There’s an endless assortment of whining and b*tching going on.
I say, if you benefit now or in the past from Federal or State welfare, to feed yourselves or your children, remember that your neighbors are the ones who have helped you to stay on your feet here in this great nation. Times may sometimes be tough, but we have consistently worked together to keep everyone afloat and with some opportunity.
If you’re better off, then be grateful for that. None of you are so important than we can’t continue to grow America without you. You’ve been lucky enough to have prospered here, when it would be less likely to have happened elsewhere. Respect your country.
I know that many of you are wildly upset about all kinds of things. Most of it just boils to anxiety about your place in society. You know damn well the modern world will run just fine without you, and are anxious to carve out a niche in what’s here before everything changes. Just take it easy. You’re lucky to live in this great nation, where everyone generally is taken care of. Chill out.
Every problem that we have, to include energy consumption, pollution, drug abuse, etc. are all down to human nature. I urge you all as citizens to get your heads straight. If we trusted each other and worked together there is little that we can’t do. I’ll continue to try to point this out to you in the coming days – that most of what you perceive as wrong with America is actually some type of psychological projection to do with your own self-image or family worries. Out here in the real world, America’s doing well and our lives get better all the time. Thank you and goodnight.
@Pat.Herve
The BLS fudged the numbers when they conveniently didn’t report California right before the election.
And currently, the BLS unemployment rate is dropping only because less people are seeking unemployment insurance.
I didn’t bring up the debt. I wrote about the deficit spending that would have occurred except that we hit the debt ceiling limit, preventing new spending. Our debt did not grow, ie, our deficit spending was halted, for months.
Dear Cargo, is it difficult living on the dark side of the moon? Is your glass always half empty?
For Cargo:
“There are only two things to worry about, either you are healthy or you are sick. If you are healthy, then there is nothing to worry about. But if you are sick there are only two things to “worry about, either you will get well or you will die. If you get well, then there is nothing to worry about. But if you die there are only two things to worry about, either you will go to heaven or to hell. If you go to heaven, then there is nothing to worry about. And if you to go hell, you’ll be so darn busy shaking hands with your friends you won’t have time to worry.”
Can I suggest two changes to the SOTU…
1.) Change how he enters the chamber, sooo tired of seeing ass kissing politicians trying to shake his hand and women kissing him and then playfully rubbing their lipstick off his cheek. Hell, it takes him nearly 30 minutes to even get to the podium.
2.) Change how he exits the chamber, it looked like he was Justin Beiber and all of the pols around him were 12 year old girls (guys included).
Other than that, I watched a bit of it, not much different that last years SOTU or the year before that or the year before that.
– Close Guantanamo – okay, he said he was going to do that in ’08
– Apparently we have the best economy ever and millions upon millions of new jobs, but for some reason need more and more job training to find people jobs now and nobody can ever get a job or get ahead in life.
– Surprised we didn’t hear that Bin laden is dead and GM is alive.
– Biden looked like his goofy self, antics and facial expressions included.
– Boehner looked like his tan self.
That’s about it…
@Peterson
I have a great change.
Have the Congress request that the President just have it sent over by messenger, like Washington did.
@George S. Harris
No…my problem is that the glass is half full of water when I wanted bourbon.
And how about those republican responses? There were several competing ones in which they argues with each other more than the president.
I only listened to the lady from Washington State. I have heard worse although she was a little long on having a handicapped child.
@Cargosquid
The participation rate has been declining since 2002. *Some* of that is the related to the boomers – some of it is structural.
You clearly do not understand the difference in debt and deficit.
@Pat.Herve
What are you talking about?
The debt grows due to deficit spending. The debt limit prevented new spending. Instead of having a fight about it in May, the gov’t postponed that fight until the budget fight.
That was the 2012-13 deficit. The part that was spent immediately after raising the debt limit, was in this fiscal year.
The glass is half full.
It bothers some people on the left that the upper half of the glass was spilled to the ground during 2001-2008, because some guys in suits came around and took big gulps out of it, swearing that they would refill it, which they never did.
It bothers some of the right that thirsty people are given small sips from the glass.
But yeah, the glass is at least half full, and it is a bigger glass than you could find anywhere else.