Via Think Progress, I am reading the SOTU while Bush speaks, nearly muted. Here are a few thoughts.
I don’t need a daddy waging his finger at me to be responsible in my spending. the economy sucks, and it’s getting harder to make ends meet. Wages are shrinking while costs rise. There are many problems with the Stimulus package, that I’ve noted here, here and here, and to push making the tax cuts (for the rich) permanent is negligible.
However, he goes on:
Just as we trust Americans with their own money, we need to earn their trust by spending their tax dollars wisely.
Except, he and the GOP (along with some dems) have squandered billions of dollars on an unjust and illgal war based on lies. That was hardly wise.
But, he wasn’t talking about his administration and the GOP squandering your tax dollars. Nope. He was talking about earmarks. And there is an emerging double standard developing in the GOP, as they try to tell us, after daddy Bush wagged his finger, that some earmarks are good. While I don’t dispute that there are probably some good earmarks put into bills, you can’t have your leader wagging his finger for the publics visual benefit, while the rest of his party ignores it.
Now we get to housing, and it appears that Fannie Mae is under the gun.
Tonight I ask you to pass legislation to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, modernize the Federal Housing Administration, and allow State housing agencies to issue tax-free bonds to help homeowners refinance their mortgages.
it appears that this piece on Fannie Mae was timely.
Of course there was the usual Bush rhetoric on education (more standardized tests, and privatization) and more free trade, which doesn’t work under the current exploitive methods. He complained about judges not being confirmed without reminding you that he’s had more judges confirmed than Clinton.
Nor does Bush think that he’s at fault for the increases in Medicaid/Medicare spending. No siree, bob. The Dems have been trying to fix what Bush and the GOP broke.
And the rest is on the “war on terrah,” and good amount of fearmongering, especially as it relates to the making permanent the FISA bill with the included retroactive immunity for the telecoms.
Meanwhile the good folks over at Think Progress have fact-checked his assertions from the SOTU in a series of posts.
Same shit, different year. And thank the goddess it’s the last year.
The unwritten law of Bush and the Republicans and the Democrats alike is that All Defense Spending is Good, but defense spending accounts for over $600 billion per year, while the country with the next largest defense budget, China, spends less that $80 billion per year. And with all that defense spending, we still have not won the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq after five years. But don’t expect anyone to have the decency and concern for America to say, “Let’s cut the defense budget” or, keeping spending high but actually doing good for Americans, “Let’s cut the defense budget and use the money to rebuild the country’s infrastructure”.
[...] The Crone- “I don’t need a daddy waging his finger at me to be responsible in my spending.” [...]