Just What You Need To Make You Feel Better

I am convinced, more than ever, that the inmates are truly running the asylum. I don't know if that phrase predated Edgar Allan Poe's The System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Feather or not, but after watching the opening of last night's State of the (dis) Union address, I have to wonder if he was really writing about Congress. One of the talking heads that was filling time before the President started blithering noted that Jefferson, although required to present a State of the Union by the Constitution, felt that doing so in the House was akin to the Throne Speech of England, and thus too regal and not seemly and submitted his report in writing. Every President up to Hoover did the same thing. As this pundit also pointed out, no President in the TV era is ever likely not to present the State of the Union in Congress. What bothered me though was that it did seem like king George was presenting a Throne Speech. What was worse, was the politicians, that not three months ago would have nothing to do with him were trying to touch and be seen with the anointed one like he was a king, or at least a rock star. It was disgusting if nothing else. Grandiose and flamboyant.

That was about all my stomach could take. My doctor has suggested I cut back on my intake of useless political rhetoric. Seems it is bad for my digestion, but I could not help taking a look at the text of the speech this morning and I really tried not to laugh too hard.

First up, the President's desire to reduce gasoline use by 20 percent over 10 years. This from someone whose family has made its millions from the oil industry. The irony is just flowing off of this one. I am all in favor of reducing gasoline use, but I would be more interested to see real attempts at finding a real, viable alternate fuel that does not require oil to produce it. And the world is a long way from that goal. A more realistic request from the President would be to reduce gasoline use by 20 percent in five years and require that minimum EPA fuel efficiencies for all vehicles be no less than 30 miles to the gallon. Would it reduce the types of automobiles on the road? Sure. Would it mean some car makers would go out of business? Yes. But if the United States is serious about this (which it is not, we all know that), then those are some of the tough decisions that have to be made.

The President pitched a balanced budget without tax increases. This of course is the same as asking a family of four to stop eating so they can pay their mortgage, which, by the way, is one of the hard choices that many families are being forced to make. Unfortunately, it is not one the Federal Government is likely to make anytime soon. I am not saying there is not fat in the budget that can be trimmed, there is a lot of it, but again, it will require some hard choices and many Americans will feel the impact of those choices. However, we know that those choices will never be made, so a balanced budget is a pipe dream that gets trotted out at these things to make it look like the President cares when, quite frankly, he and the Congress do not. Along with this little issue is the issue of Social Security reform. Frankly, this is a dead horse and has been for most of this Administration. Yes, Social Security does need to be reformed, but this is no the solution.

While we are on the topic of unworkable solutions, Iraq was brought up (big surprise there). At staggering costs to the American people, both in terms of arms for the troops and subsidies for the disfunctional Iraqi government, this single sink hole is one of those areas where the President has not only lost his way, but doomed his legacy to be remembered as one of the worst in the history of American Presidents. His suggestion that pulling the troops out will only destabilize the region is bunk and anyone who truly understands the region knows this. If the troops were pulled out tomorrow, the governments of Iran, Syria, Turkey and others would quash any civil war inside a week, if it lasted that long. It is unlikely to spill out of the region except in direct response to crushing the United States and its allies and with the exception of Iran, no government in the region wants that to happen. There are just too many economic risks and they know it. So sending more troops into the region to die for a war that should never have been started is a waste of resources and human capital and it would go a long way to the supposed balanced budget if the Department of Defense just folded its tents and came home.

What I did not see, nor did I really expect, is anything talking about the crumbling infrastructure here in the United States. But I guess we are going to have to experience a major failure of the power grid or the transportation network before we see anyone in Washington look to the nation as a whole and truly begin to evaluate the State of the Nation.