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.
Perry 2010
