No big surprises
No surprises in the speech last night. A lot of initiatives and "bipartisan" councils. I quote bipartisan because I usually see these councils consisting of 13 members, 8 being Republicans, and 5 being Democrats. That's more lopsided than bipartisan in my book. Make the councils evenly split and call it bipartisan.
There is a lot of news coverage on the Dems erupting in applause at not passing the Social Security reform and Bush getting huffy over it. Personally, I view that as a failure of Bush, not a failure of Congress. I mean, it's his reform, so it's his job to get the reform passed through the legislature, and if that requires (*gasp*) negotiations, it falls on him to make some deals. It's the same reason my political career (lol) is thus far a failure in my eyes. Not one of my reformative ideas has been embraced by a legislature on any level. Of course, for me, it's a matter of blogging an idea and leaving it at that. Still, my fault.
I did like the Teach Kids Science and Math Initiative. That cracked me up. Here's the thing, in December of last year, there were major cuts made to financial aid for college. On top of rising tuition costs, us middle class people can now get even less in grants for school. If I remember right (too lazy to double check dates right now), it was in the huge ball of spending cuts that the Repubs waved around as fiscal responsibility.....right before a huge ball of tax cuts went to the wealthiest Americans again. Now they're waving around funding initiatives to increase or aptitude in things that will make us globally competitive. The irony of it is that the countries that have most recently outstripped us in those fields (China, India, South Korea, etc) sent most of their stellar performers here to study. It kind of makes me wonder how much of the initiative is going to benefit citizens.
So, personally, I felt the speech was a poor attempt to gloss over the administration's continued attempts to run the nation with heavy handed tactics, fail to take criticism, and continue to live in a reality that's pretty far from the rest of the world. Looks like another year of the same.
As a quick poll, how many of us have actuall paid less taxes or got a bigger refund since Bush came into office? Not me.
There is a lot of news coverage on the Dems erupting in applause at not passing the Social Security reform and Bush getting huffy over it. Personally, I view that as a failure of Bush, not a failure of Congress. I mean, it's his reform, so it's his job to get the reform passed through the legislature, and if that requires (*gasp*) negotiations, it falls on him to make some deals. It's the same reason my political career (lol) is thus far a failure in my eyes. Not one of my reformative ideas has been embraced by a legislature on any level. Of course, for me, it's a matter of blogging an idea and leaving it at that. Still, my fault.
I did like the Teach Kids Science and Math Initiative. That cracked me up. Here's the thing, in December of last year, there were major cuts made to financial aid for college. On top of rising tuition costs, us middle class people can now get even less in grants for school. If I remember right (too lazy to double check dates right now), it was in the huge ball of spending cuts that the Repubs waved around as fiscal responsibility.....right before a huge ball of tax cuts went to the wealthiest Americans again. Now they're waving around funding initiatives to increase or aptitude in things that will make us globally competitive. The irony of it is that the countries that have most recently outstripped us in those fields (China, India, South Korea, etc) sent most of their stellar performers here to study. It kind of makes me wonder how much of the initiative is going to benefit citizens.
So, personally, I felt the speech was a poor attempt to gloss over the administration's continued attempts to run the nation with heavy handed tactics, fail to take criticism, and continue to live in a reality that's pretty far from the rest of the world. Looks like another year of the same.
As a quick poll, how many of us have actuall paid less taxes or got a bigger refund since Bush came into office? Not me.
posted by Amazing Shafeman at 10:07 AM
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