Jan 28 2010
President Obama’s First State of the Union Address
I’ve picked a few items out of the Presidents State of the Union Address and given some commentary on it. Enjoy and provide feedback!
The President said:
So I supported the last administration’s efforts to create the financial rescue program. And when we took that program over, we made it more transparent and more accountable. And as a result, the markets are now stabilized, and we’ve recovered most of the money we spent on the banks.
Most, but not all. To recover the rest, I’ve proposed a fee on the biggest banks. Now…
What that really means:
A fee? That’s just another way of saying a tax (if the government takes your money, it’s a tax…fees are what you pay to play golf). Just like every other ‘fee’ that those evil banks, big business, or whatever get tagged with for the sake of some ‘social justice’, it will just get passed on to the customers of that business (and the federal government knows this..it’s just a nice way sneak a new tax in on us). So really, it’s a new tax for anyone who uses one of those evil big banks. Thank you Mr. President!
The President said:
We should start where most new jobs do, in small businesses, companies that begin when….. companies that begin when an entrepreneur — when an entrepreneur takes a chance on a dream or a worker decides it’s time she became her own boss…. …..So tonight, I’m proposing that we take $30 billion of the money Wall Street banks have repaid and use it to help community banks give small businesses the credit they need to stay afloat. I’m also proposing a new small-business tax credit, one that will go to over 1 million small businesses who hire new workers or raise wages. While we’re at it, let’s also eliminate all capital gains taxes on small-business investment and provide a tax incentive for all large businesses and all small businesses to invest in new plants and equipment.
What he should do:
Eliminate taxes on business all together. As I mentioned in a previous post, business don’t pay taxes really. It’s just a cost of doing business for them. They just roll the estimated tax burden into the price of the goods and services, so you and I really end up paying the taxes (aka a hidden tax…kind of like ‘fees’ on big banks). If businesses don’t have to include the cost of tax in its goods or services, what they sell becomes cheaper. That would give us more money to spend on other things. Seems if we spent more money, the economy would grow. I’m pretty sure the government taking money out of my wallet and your will not help the economy.
What the President said:
But to create more of these clean-energy jobs, we need more production, more efficiency, more incentives, and that means building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country.
It means making tough decisions about opening new off-shore areas for oil and gas development. It means continued investment in advanced biofuels and clean-coal technologies. And, yes, it means passing a comprehensive energy and climate bill with incentives that will finally make clean energy the profitable kind of energy in America.
What that means:
You can have more nuclear power plants and coal burning electric plants but it will cost you a Cap and Trade bill (see my previous blog post on what Cap and Trade is….short version is it’s another tax).
What the President said:
Third, we need to export more of our goods. Because the more products we make and sell to other countries, the more jobs we support right here in America. So… So tonight, we set a new goal: We will double our exports over the next five years, an increase that will support 2 million jobs in America. To help meet this goal, we’re launching a National Export Initiative that will help farmers and small businesses increase their exports and reform export controls consistent with national security. We have to seek new markets aggressively, just as our competitors are. If America sits on the sidelines while other nations sign trade deals, we will lose the chance to create jobs on our shores. But realizing those benefits also means enforcing those agreements so our trading partners play by the rules.
My two cents (because I can’t afford to spend more than that):
We need to export more goods? No kidding! How about you quit taxing the heck out of manufacturers, stop telling everyone how to run their business (otherwise known as government regulations), and stop requiring that manufacturers use union labor (some states are right to work states but many MUST hire union workers). Make it easy to do business here, and manufacturers will start making things again. And if you want farmers to export more of the food they grow, end the farm subsidies that are used as incentives for farmers to NOT grow crops. Seems kind of dumb to pay farmers to not grow crops then say we need to export more food.
What the President said:
Fourth, we need to invest in the skills and education of our people. Now, this year — this year, we’ve broken through the stalemate between left and right by launching a national competition to improve our schools.
What he should do:
Want to improve schools through competition, then how about make them compete against each other for students? Since we all have to pay taxes to support government schools, how about letting us use our money in the form a school voucher so that we can actually pick the schools are children attend? The schools will actually have to compete against each other for students. Competition will create a better product (a better school). As it stands now, every school has a guaranteed customer base since our children are required to go to a certain school based of our address. Yes, we could always send our children to a private school, but that is more money I would have to pay for my child’s education on top of the money I’m forced to pay through taxes (which we don’t get back if we choose not to use government schools…and we still pay the taxes even when are kids are finished with school…and people who don’t have children are forced to pay for the schools too).
What the President said:
We will have all of our combat troops out of Iraq by the end of this August.
What that means:
Notice he said combat troops. A lot of the military there are in a ‘non-combat’ role and contractors are probably not listed as combatants either. I think what will happen is troop levels will go down some, but most assignments will stay the same except they get changed to a ‘non-combat’ status. It’s just a neat little trick to make it seem like the troops have mostly been pulled out, but they really haven’t.
