Tonight, President Obama will try to kick-start his legislative priorities for his second term in his State of the Union address to Congress. Much is being made, as is the case every year, of what the president is likely to say. Most of the guesses so far have him focused on the economy, while also mentioning gun control, immigration reform and climate change. There are bound to be a surprise or two, and I’ll have it covered for you here tomorrow morning.
Much less effort is given to predicting what the Republican response from Sen. Marco Rubio will be — or, for that matter, the “tea party response” from Sen. Rand Paul. But Ira Stoll has taken a crack at writing what he thinks Rubio ought to say, and I think it’s rather clever on his part.
Because “our nation’s challenges are too great” for partisanship, Stoll advises Rubio to say, “first thing tomorrow, I will introduce legislation in the Senate called the Barack Obama Campaign Promise Implementation Act of 2013.”
That legislation and its companion bill in the House, in Stoll’s imagination, would include five specific proposals covering corporate and individual tax reform, energy, immigration, and policy toward Iran. All five, he writes, have GOP support and “one thing in common — they’ve all been endorsed already by President Obama.”
I’ll let you read Stoll’s suggestions for yourself, but I’d add a couple of other promises the GOP could insist that Obama fulfill. One is support for more charter schools across the nation. Another is that, “if you like your health care plan, you can keep it” even under Obamacare — a notion the Congressional Budget Office finds increasingly unlikely for millions of Americans.
– By Kyle Wingfield
212 comments Add your comment
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
February 12th, 2013
10:13 pm
The climate change circle-je** is the home of the defeated global communist movement.
Bruno
February 12th, 2013
10:14 pm
Rafe: I can say, the only absolute I learned in Science is to question everything and everybody.
And with that statement, my friend, you have shown without a shadow of a doubt that you understand Science better than all the Libs here rolled into one.
My favorite Richard Feynman quote:
““I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it is much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers that might be wrong. If we will only allow that, as we progress, we remain unsure, we will leave opportunities for alternatives. We will not become enthusiastic for the fact, the knowledge, the absolute truth of the day, but remain always uncertain … In order to make progress, one must leave the door to the unknown ajar.”
Bruno
February 12th, 2013
10:17 pm
Jut caught the tail end of Obama blabbing. His attempt to put a “human face” on the issue of gun control didn’t sway me much.
MarkV
February 12th, 2013
11:22 pm
Bruno @ 10:02 pm
“Anyone who dares to hold an opinion outside of the new orthodoxy is ridiculed and ostracized. Yet many brilliant scientists like Freeman Dyson aren’t buying the hogwash.”
The above is, of course, hogwash. You show your colors immediately, when you call the opinion of the 97% of climatologists “hogwash.” Is that what you call scientific objectivity?
“This is what Mr. Dyson has to say about the computer models which are driving the current hysteria:
“The models solve the equations of fluid dynamics, and they do a very good job of describing the fluid motions of the atmosphere and the oceans. They do a very poor job of describing the clouds, the dust, the chemistry and the biology of fields and farms and forests. They do not begin to describe the real world we live in…””
Another piece of hogwash, and if that is an example of Mr. Dyson’s knowledge, then calling him a “brilliant scientist” is a travesty. Models are used in every field of science, and Mr. Dyson contradicts himself thoroughly in that one quoted claim. “They do not begin to describe the real world we live in…” Apparently, to Mr. Dyson, motions of atmosphere and the oceans is “not the real world we live in.” Which world is it?
MarkV
February 12th, 2013
11:30 pm
Bruno @ 10:14 pm
Richard Feynman might have had something reasonable in mind, but the way he expressed it was horrible:
“I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it is much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers that might be wrong.”
Preferring ignorance is hardly an example to follow. I prefer to know, with the understanding that what I know might be wrong.
MarkV
February 12th, 2013
11:30 pm
Good night to all.
Ray
February 13th, 2013
12:55 am
Spring is here, again so early it will ruin the beauty of the Masters in Augusta. And, the mosquitos and the West Nile virus will be real up close and personal to Georgians this summer, if we don’t get a cold snap in before April. These climate changes create economic and losses of life, locally. Tornados in January and February. You can’t take your eyes off the weather channels anymore.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
February 13th, 2013
7:20 am
Not sure why anyone would expect the processes of adaptation and evolution would come to a halt.
md
February 13th, 2013
8:17 am
“I prefer to know, with the understanding that what I know might be wrong.”
Which means if it is wrong then one didn’t know……
MarkV
February 13th, 2013
8:47 am
md @ 8:17 am
Is that the best you can do, a silly nonsense?
MarkV
February 13th, 2013
4:11 pm
Bruno @ 4:07 pm
Do you need to confirm what I had written?
MarkV
February 13th, 2013
4:12 pm
Sorry, wrong blog.