More of the same in Obama’s SOTU; Rubio hits the right notes in GOP response
Toward the beginning of his State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Obama said we need a “smarter government,” not a “bigger government.” He then proceeded to request a long wish list of new government programs that make clear that, in his mind, the only smarter government is a bigger one.
So, we would have the federal government providing everything from universal pre-K to a network of manufacturing hubs to rebuilt bridges to refinanced homes — none of which is a bad thing, but also none of which require the involvement of a federal government already well beyond its ability to pay for the things it already tries to do. His assertion that this wish list would not add “a single dime” to the deficit didn’t pass the laugh test, particularly when administration officials after the speech declined to provide cost estimates for the new programs.
One can only guess his proposals won’t add “a single dime” to the deficit because they would, instead, add many billions if not trillions of dollars to it.
But if you missed the speech, fear not. You have heard every thought in it before; it was a pastiche of speeches he’s given over the past four years. I wouldn’t even say last night’s rendition was better than all the other times he’s given it. The only unifying theme was that Washington needs to do more. The only memorable moment came toward the end, when the president employed his familiar cadence of repeating a particular phrase time and again — this time, it was to say the various victims of gun violence he mentioned by name “deserve a vote” on his gun-control proposals. It will have zero effect on policy making. It was campaign-rally, rah-rah stuff.
If you expected anything different, you haven’t been paying attention. If tax dollars are still paying for a White House speechwriter to recycle the same ideas and phrases, then what Americans “deserve” is a refund.
The GOP response from Sen. Marco Rubio was the party’s strongest counter-argument yet during the Obama presidency. If you missed it, you might not see much about it in the news beyond the (admittedly awkward) moment during the middle of it when a clearly parched Rubio reached quickly for a bottle of water. As someone said on Twitter at the time — I lost track of exactly who it was — that’s largely a function of how a speech given to a camera is inherently inferior to one given to a live audience, during which the speaker can pause during applause to take a quick swig. Rubio’s Water(bottle)gate was but the latest reminder of that fact, which has dogged SOTU respondents from both parties for years now.
Those who can look past that moment will find the reasons Republicans are so excited about Rubio as a future presidential candidate. He makes the case for conservative principles with illustrations, and from angles, that are necessary to cast them in their proper light: as principles that can boost Americans of all backgrounds and income levels. This was a case Mitt Romney did not, and perhaps could not, make effectively. Rubio is obviously fluent in conservative ideals and language in a way that neither Romney not John McCain was. His ethnicity is icing on the cake.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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403 comments Add your comment
Jefferson
February 13th, 2013
1:58 pm
At least the corporations are thriving, eh ?
getalife
February 13th, 2013
2:00 pm
Looks like dusty is jealous of Aquagirl.
Jefferson
February 13th, 2013
2:01 pm
Looks like the Gov will raise some taxes too, spend, spend,spend….
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/deal-signs-hospital-bed-tax-bill-giving-medicaid-a/nWNNY/
getalife
February 13th, 2013
2:03 pm
deal raised taxes?
I thought he was a con.
Oh well.
Politico
February 13th, 2013
2:05 pm
getalife
Not sure who Dusty is jealous of or not, but anyone posting about the Dems controlling the House and how they have had the checkbook for the last 4 yrs as she did a week or so ago, would be best sticking to poetry and leave political commentary to others.
breckenridge
February 13th, 2013
2:07 pm
Just Saying…….Paul Broun comparing himself to Ron Paul is like a T-ball bench warmer comparing himself to Ted Williams. And such childishness….I was the first to call Obama a socialist…no way I beat you by 3 minutes…..only because your watch is fast…. is not……is to…..is not…that does it, I’m gonna go get my big brother…….
But I do wish these gonorrhea-mouthed fools would take the time to actually look up the definition of the word “socialism.” You cannot have a socialist system without the government nationalizing private businesses. I’m neither supporting or defending Obama mind you; I’m simply opposed to mindless fools blathering about terms they don’t understand.
Dusty
February 13th, 2013
2:07 pm
Ahh Sailfish,
I think you are now an artful angelfish! But watch those barracudas. Not only will they eat anybody, they will vote for anybody.
But part with BurgerKIng? Me? Surely you jest! The answer to that is Nevah!
Do keep a sharp eye in the muddy water. There’s some strange one sided flanders in your school and they are flat out wrong.
Politico
February 13th, 2013
2:09 pm
Flanders (Dutch: About this sound Vlaanderen (help·info), French: Flandre) is one of the regions and communities of Belgium and also a historical geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. The demonym for Flanders is Flemish, while someone from Flanders is a Fleming. Brussels is the capital of Flanders though not fully under its jurisdiction.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flanders
getalife
February 13th, 2013
2:14 pm
Politico,
Like rubio, dusty thinks w did a great job.
No credibility.
Dusty
February 13th, 2013
2:16 pm
Hi getalife, you still swimming around?
Of course I’m jealous of AquaGirl. She can swim underwater on both sides of the pool and make bad jokes at the same time. She’s pretty good at that and blowing bubbles.
Don’t pay any attention to Politico. He’s just a grumpy ol’ barnacle stuck on one side.
Happy Valentine’s Day tomorrow!
Reality
February 13th, 2013
2:17 pm
From every account, every measure, any source, whatever….
The largest percentage of our federal budget goes to the military. It is not medicare. It is not welfare. It is not edcuation. It is nothing else. It is the military. This is true in 2013 and has been true for every year for the last many many years.
Why is it the republicans want to focus on the portions of the budget? Isn’t today’s military high tech? Why do we need so many people? How many does it take to make a drone fly?
Why do the republicans refuse to look at the chunk of the budget that eats up most of the money? WHY?
Thulsa Doom
February 13th, 2013
2:18 pm
Yep. It was the same old, tired crap from this incompetent. That govt can and should do more. Libs do love they nanny state they do.
getalife
February 13th, 2013
2:19 pm
“Hi getalife, you still swimming around?”
I am alive and kicking.
Our country is doing much better now and our future is back to looking good.
I blame our President for this fact.
Dusty
February 13th, 2013
2:19 pm
getalife
Thanks for reminding me of “w” as “u” like to call him. He was a fiine president. Rubio might be another great one too. Looking forward to that. .
Politico
February 13th, 2013
2:20 pm
getalife
Wasn’t that Dusty just made an oversight about Dems controlling the House; anyone could have made the mistake and used D or R by mistake. It was that she as so sure of her willful ignorance that she went on and on about the spending and how the Dems controlled it all because they controlled the House and approval of that spending.
It really wasn’t much of an eye opener to anyone who reads this blog, but was amusing to see her back peddle when shown the facts. Needless to say it wasn’t a pretty sight.
getalife
February 13th, 2013
2:22 pm
” Rubio might be another great one too.”
Watergate is all they are talking about but his career ended when he claimed w was a great President when the majority decided he was a disaster.
Thulsa Doom
February 13th, 2013
2:24 pm
Well Jefferson you better hope corporations are thriving. After all it’s them and their employees whose taxes foot the bill for the dems nanny state. The nanny state can’t pay for itself dontcha know.
Dusty
February 13th, 2013
2:25 pm
Yes, getalife,
I blame our president for many facts. One of them is the fact that we owe over 16 trillion dollars.
I mean that is even more than my weekly allowance! You betcha!
Lt Dan
February 13th, 2013
2:26 pm
Question for Reality:
What is the wealthy’s ‘fair share’ of income taxes?
Can you give me a number or percentage?
I ask this question from time to time, but have never received an answer.
I’m just really curious, Can anyone define ‘fair share’?
If I prepare my tax return and follow the existing tax laws and get a refund from the IRS, have I payed my fair share?
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
February 13th, 2013
2:27 pm
md already touched on this, but in response to jdw -
Decreased tax revenue and high spending resulted in an unusually large budget deficit of about $1.4 trillion, well above the $407 billion projected in the FY 2009 budget. A 2009 CBO report indicated that $245 billion, about half of the excess spending, was a result of the 2008 TARP bailouts. Tax cuts resulting from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 accounted for nearly half of the lost revenue.
Like md pointed out, obozo authorized the TARP expenditure, mostly as a payback to his Wall Street buddies.
Keep flailing at it, jdw.
getalife
February 13th, 2013
2:27 pm
corporations and the wealthy will be fine but keep staying the course on slobbering all over Americans that need no help from any American.
We will focus on the middle class while you are without leadership stuck in the wilderness divided and conquered.
Our future is bright.
Bruno
February 13th, 2013
2:29 pm
You just have to know how to do it. Right, Bruno?
When I put my mind to it, I’ve been told that I can be quite charming. And then there’s that other part of me………I guess that nobody’s perfect.
getalife
February 13th, 2013
2:31 pm
dusty,
We cut 2.5 trillion but our President wants more cuts to total 4 trillion.
The deal is still on the table.
Why is your party walking away from this grand bargain?
Don't Tread
February 13th, 2013
2:36 pm
We cut military spending (including R&D) to the bone in the 30s and came very close to losing WWII when we could’t even keep Nazi submarines out of our own coastal waters.
We did it again during the Carter years and then couldn’t rescue 52 hostages from the Iranians.
Dusty
February 13th, 2013
2:37 pm
Oh dear, I see Politico, that sweet thing, has looked up “flanders”. ahh Flanders Field where the poppies bloom!
But of course, I was talking about those flat footed flounders of fish fame.to the amiable angelfish I guess I was just “floundering ” around. Somethng definitely “fishy” going on here!
Now, what was the recent subject of cerebral stupefaction? . Oh yes, the ;president’s speech. OK….If you say so…
getalife
February 13th, 2013
2:40 pm
How many of you cons did not bother to listen to our President?
MarkV
February 13th, 2013
2:42 pm
md @ 12:51 pm
One does not call a program broken because it has a shortfall. The real issue with Medicare is future funding, not current funding.
getalife
February 13th, 2013
2:42 pm
It was w that wrote the blank check with no strings attached to bail out the banks.
You cons ignore this fact.
getalife
February 13th, 2013
2:44 pm
“the real issue with Medicare is future funding, not current funding.”
True, both SS and Medicare needed tweaks since the start.
ObamaCare will need tweaks too.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
February 13th, 2013
2:46 pm
How many of you cons did not bother to listen to our President?
I, for one, didn’t. At this point, why does it matter? For some odd reason, I knew you obozobots would be here today giving us a mealy mouthed rerun of the whole thing, lie by stinking filthy lie. And, sure enough, you haven’t disappointed.
2.5 trillion in cuts? Wow, that’s a whopper. 3 year olds all over the country are like, man, why did I tell my pinko Dad I broke the window? Look at what I could have gotten away with.
Politico
February 13th, 2013
2:47 pm
Dusty
Well you wrote “flanders” in your 2:07 post. Plus you seem to think Democrats have controlled the House for the last four years, so I was just making sure
getalife
February 13th, 2013
2:48 pm
I will not listen to rubio or rand so we are even.
2.5 trillion but wants a total of 4 trillion.
Facts do matter.
Dusty
February 13th, 2013
2:49 pm
getalife, dear valentine
Republicans walk away from the president’s promises because he forgets them the next day.
There’s the first election promises, the first term promises, the second election promises and now he reports to the nation with promises.
Republicans werent” just born yesterday”, as ’tis said. We know his promises of today will be gone tomorrow and we don’t want the country to be “gone” too..
getalife
February 13th, 2013
2:51 pm
Did you know our Treasury reported a surplus?
Of course not.
We had a surplus when w took office but he exploded our deficit.
We must never ever let the gop blow a surplus again.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
February 13th, 2013
2:52 pm
The TARP program originally authorized expenditures of $700 billion. The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act reduced the amount authorized to $475 billion. By October 11, 2012, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) stated that total disbursements would be $431 billion and estimated the total cost, including grants for mortgage programs that have not yet been made, would be $24 billion.
The blank check for 24 billion, eh?
By the way, this is how obozo can claim even the most meager of spending cuts, paybacks to the treasury from Bush’s highly successful bailout program.
Now all we have to do to get right is to have some 800 billion porkulus paid back to the treasury, hahahahahahaha, yeah, like that hasn’t all been snorted up their noses.
getalife
February 13th, 2013
2:56 pm
Did you know the easing by the fed until we return to full employment costs 85 billion a month?
How much does the sequester cut?
Dusty
February 13th, 2013
2:56 pm
Thank you, Politico. That’s the best valentine I ever received from an old barnacle.
Keep hangin’ on there!
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
February 13th, 2013
2:57 pm
Here’s your brain – spend 163 billion more than you take in.
Here’s your brain on drugs – spend 1.63 trillion more than you take in and call accounting gimmicks “cuts.” Claim to be a fiscal deficit hawk. Babble about Bushie.
See what I’m saying?
getalife
February 13th, 2013
2:58 pm
Did you know the total costs of bailing out the gse’s of fred and fan?
Of course not because it is ongoing.
Bruno
February 13th, 2013
2:58 pm
How many of you cons did not bother to listen to our President?
Who?? Never heard of the guy……
getalife
February 13th, 2013
3:00 pm
Bruno,
I know then you pretend to be informed.
JDW
February 13th, 2013
3:01 pm
@md…you are confusing appropriations and spending…money was appropriated in 2009 and spent over the last 4 years. Fact is the CBO projected the 2009 budget deficit at $1.2 trillion on January 7 2009…two weeks BEFORE the inaguration.
http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/07/news/economy/cbo_2009_budget_outlook/
The point you and the rest can’t get through your heads is that in spite of the stimulus, in spite of the $350 billion in bailout funds discretionary spending which is the ONLY part of the budget governed by the Appropriations process has DECREASED over the last 4 years from about $1.3 trillion to around $1.289 trillion.
http:// www .heritage. org/multimedia/infographic/2012/10/federal-spending-by-the-numbers-2012/the-federal-budget-1992-2012
When you compare that to the increases under Reagan and Duhbya the whining from Republicans is laughable. Fact is limiting the growth of discretionary spending is one of the things that is dragging on the economy.
Dusty
February 13th, 2013
3:01 pm
getalife,
Did you know that if fairies danced on mushrooms every night we could have more mushroom soup?
I promise you. More soup for the starving obese children! Cross my heart!!
MarkV
February 13th, 2013
3:04 pm
Bruno @ 1:00 pm
Calling me a stupid only shows the stupidity, with which you address comments. Freeman Dyson can be “the most brilliant mathematician/theoretical physicist who didn’t win the Nobel Prize;” he is not a climatologist. When it comes to that science, I could not care less about his “demonstrating that the “path integral method” of calculation for quantum electrodynamics advanced by Richard Feynman was equivalent to the “operator method” developed independently by Julian Schwinger and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga,” which was just your usual way of bragging. From Mr. Dyson, a “brilliant scientist,” one would expect something better than suggesting that atmosphere and the ocean are not the real world we live in. Perhaps he should stick with God’s Equation and leave the science of global warming to those familiar with it.
Computer models are not “driving the global warming scare.” Global warming is based on direct measurements, as well as observations of natural phenomena. Computer models are involved mainly in the predictions.
Politico
February 13th, 2013
3:06 pm
You are most certainly welcome big Dust……..
Bruno
February 13th, 2013
3:09 pm
Special for sailfish and AquaGirl:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfh3p0qcSLs
Dusty
February 13th, 2013
3:09 pm
Brunio,
If you don’t know the “cons”, wait until you meet the” dems”. Would almost beat the Hatfields and the McCoys!
Cheesy Grits is gone but not forgotten
February 13th, 2013
3:12 pm
I blame our president for many facts. One of them is the fact that we owe over 16 trillion dollars.
FACT : The overwhelming majority of this countries debt was run up under Republican Administrations. Ronald Reagan tripled the countries debt in 8 years.
FACT : In the 1950’s the tax on the very wealthy was at 70 percent. We had no debt. Taxes for the wealthy has dropped dramatically in the next 60 years. Our debt has exploded.
FACT : The president hit the nail on the head. Republican will gladly cut older Americans retirement or health benefits. To ensure that the wealthy continue getting every tax break.
getalife
February 13th, 2013
3:12 pm
dusty lives in con la la land where facts don’t matter.
Bless her poor lil heart.
Cheesy Grits is gone but not forgotten
February 13th, 2013
3:14 pm
Did you know our Treasury reported a surplus?
Of course not.
We had a surplus when w took office but he exploded our deficit.
We certainly did. It took W about 17 days to blow every bit of it.