One Year Later … My State of the Union

It has been a year since I started this blog. Yes there have been times where I have not been able to post as much as I would like or at all. But today I reflect back on the day that I started this blog. It was January 20, 2009 and the Inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States. A lot has changed since that day, and a lot still has not. The things that have not interest me for a President that was elected on a wave of “CHANGE WE CAN HOPE IN (or something…)”. If you asked me what I think the State of our Union is here is what I would say:

My fellow Americans…the State of our Union is troubled. The true core of our Union is strong, because the core of our Union is the people. The American people continue to have an entrepreneurial spirit, a charitable spirit, and a strong sense of character. However, the current state of affairs out of Washington have left the American economy and the American public in a troubled state of affairs. Currently, 10% of our citizens is out of work, and struggling to pay their bills and take care of their children. However, this Administration and this Congress have done nothing but provide smoke and mirrors as solutions to this problem. The stimulus package that was passed last year did not stimulate the economy and did little to boost consumer confidence. It seems that the liberal Democrats have forgotten the basic premise in economic that consumer spending accounts for 70+% of our economy. The stimulus they passed only increased government spending and did little to help the consumer. Rather than empower the American people or American businesses to invest in this economy and truly bring it back from the brink. Our government and our country can no longer afford to spend the way we are spending. Our national debt is skyrocketing, and is devaluing the true value of our currency and our economy. There needs to be some serious change in Washington, pork spending and other government expenditures need to be trimmed and fast. I would advocate the development of an independent panel that would recommend to the President which agencies and programs could “sunset” and reduce the overall cost and budget of the federal government. The size of our government must be reduced and government spending must be brought under control. The government can not be the sole creator of jobs in this country, small business owners are the true job creating engine of this country.

We need true bipartisan health care reform, without a government funded, government executed, government facilitated health insurance program. We need this government to focus on the economy and our troops in the war zone. We do not need government to increase taxes because this will in the end reduce economic growth. We need to give the money back to the people who earn it and truly and realistically reduce spending in Washington. The freeze being proposed by the President tonight does little to alleviate the true spending concern, it simply halts the spending level at its already elevated level. This can not continue for much longer. There needs to be change.

These are just a few quick thoughts I had time to jot down before the State of the Union Address tonight. I will post my reaction to the address tonight and as we continue I will to detail what I think the State of our Union is right now and how it can be addressed.

Why We Don’t Need Socialized Medicine

This video is a response to another video titled, “Why We Need Government-Run Universal Socialized Health Insurance” (click here to see that video). This video doesn’t edit the original…just adds to it with explanations to the contrary. This is posted just for informative purposes. Enjoy…its pretty good.

One key thing I want to point out from this video is the notion that insurance companies take out some of the money you pay in just as pure profit. The responding video points out correctly that revenue – expenditures = profits. Profits are therefore taken out at the end, if they are left over at all. For example, a company that one of my relatives works for (I won’t say who or what company because I don’t want to give away anything that might have been privaliged information and shared with me in confidence) … that company and employees paid $1.5 Million in premiums to their insurance company. Their insurance company paid out $4 Million in claims. So the insurance company took a loss of nearly $2.5 Million! So it saw no profit from the premiums paid out … yet it still paid out the claims from these employees. Just an example as to the fact that insurance companies don’t take out anything as pure profits as the original video claimed.

Healthcare: What Would Reagan Say?

Again, I feel compelled to post some audio of Ronald Reagan speaking out against socialized medicine. Now you can call me an extremest or naive, and say that the Democrats and President Obama are not advocating socialized medicine akin to Canadian or British systems. But listen to this clip that was put together and aird on the Glenn Beck Radio Program. Please know that this is only being used to give some perspective, not because its from Glenn Beck. I have been accused in the past of idolizing Glenn Beck, like Democrats idolize Obama. While I listen to his program, he and I are not always in agreement so take this audio for what its truly worth.

I want to point out some key quotes from this audio piece (which has been awesomely remixed with some music). Reagan talks about the proposals (much like today’s) under the Truman Administration that would advocate for a “public option” health insurance, but would make it much more compulsory then than perhaps current legislation suggests. So we will begin after the jump:

This is was $328,835 Buys You

If you wondered what you could buy for $328,835 … this is what the federal government thought was a good purchase. After initially saying they would not release the photo (and after a Freedom of Information Request), the Obama White House finally released this photo of the Presidential plane flying above the Statue of Liberty at an altitude of about 1,000 feet. Not only did the plane fly over the Statue, it flew over Lower Manhattan (site of 9/11) and parts of New Jersey’s financial center.

I already posted about the situation and the panic it caused in the city and then the anger that something this idiotic could happen. This from WPXI:

The captivating photograph was released Friday, hours after a White House official announced that an administration aide lost his job for his role in the photo-op flyover debacle.

A White House official said Obama accepted the resignation of military office director Louis Caldera.

Caldera, a former Army secretary, took responsibility for the Air Force flyover that sparked several evacuations of buildings in New York City and New Jersey, nearly 2 weeks ago.

A review of the flight near the Statue of Liberty was conducted by the White House shortly after the incident. It’s slated to be released Friday afternoon.

The person who should face some sort of backlash or punishment is the Deputy Chief of Staff (who might have actually been informed about this stunt) but said … that he didn’t see it because he was on pain medication. Another excuse … the Military Office Director might have sent an email to a seperate email account that the Deputy doesn’t check. HOW STUPID DO YOU THINK WE ARE? Honestly, quit trying to cover your own ass and own up to your mistake. Don’t one of your subordinates take the fall for your incompitance. 

Breaking: Two Withdraw Because of Tax Issues

Today, two nominees to serve in the Obama Administration have withdrawn their nominations because of tax related issues. Those two were: former Sen. Tom Daschle withdrawing his nomination to be Health and Human Services Secretary (also nominated to be W.H. health czar) and the nominee to be the first Chief Performance Officer Nancy Killefer (also nominated for deputy director of management at the Office of Management and Budget). This appears to be a break down in the vetting process that was used by the Obama Administration in naming nominees for these positions. Let’s break down the issues each of these nominees had against them that led to this duo of withdrawls today.

This from the Associated Press:

Daschle, the former Senate Democratic leader and a strong backer of Obama’s presidential bid, said he would have been unable to operate “with the full faith of Congress and the American people. … I am not that leader, and will not be a distraction” to Obama’s agenda, he said.

Obama had given Daschle two jobs — to be White House health czar on top of the post leading the Health and Human Services Department — and Daschle is relinquishing the czar post too.

So the ammount of money that Daschle “inadvertently” didn’t pay to the IRS (between 2005-2007) was $128,203 and $11,964 in interest for a grand total of $140,167. But the tax issue is not the only one that hounded Daschle on the Hill, it was also questions about his relation to special interests in the health field. There were question about speaking fees from those interests and advice he gave to health insurers and hospitals that may have lobbied the government. These two issues fly in the face of the new ethical era that Obama claimed he was bringing to Washington. The nomination and confirmation of Timothy Geithner also is a fly in the ointment of this new ethical era Obama announced. He was dodging taxes that regular Americans are always held accountable for. Both Geithner and Daschle paid up either right before or after their nominations were announced. So they knew what they were doing or had done was wrong and knew it would be an issue. Would they have paid up if they were not being nominated to these posts? It seems Dems are fine with higher taxes for everyone because they don’t pay them anyway (and that isn’t a statement about Democrats as a whole or collective, just on these high profile folks that have had sunlight shined on their actions).

Nancy Killefer’s issue wasn’t as huge as Daschle or Geithner’s. In 2005 the District of Columbia placed a $964.69 tax lien on Killefer’s DC home because of her failure to pay unemployment compensation taxes for household help (two nannies and a personal assistant). And even though this is not to the level of Daschle and Geithner, Killefer felt it would be a distraction. And to be honest it would. Regardless of the ammount of taxes that haven’t been paid, Killefer was to oversee government spending and effectivness of government agencies, as well as deputy director of management at OMB. She obviously couldn’t manage her own household budget and tax issues.

This is a quick Welcome to Washington Mr. President. If you set the bar really high … be prepared to meet it because you will be called out on it.