• printer friendly
• mail this article
• iPod format
• digg

President George W. Bush’s State of the Union Address was long on rhetoric and short on substance. Attempting to highlight his domestic policy agenda to deflect attention from his bellicose foreign policy, the president addressed many problems but offered few solutions.

The focal point of the first half of the Address was the economy. The president emphasized his tax cut plan and urged Congress to make the cuts permanent, arguing that, “what is good for Americans 3, 5, [or] 7 years from now has to be good for Americans now.” However, what Americans would have 7 years from now under Bush’s plan is essentially what Americans have now, and right now his plan is failing. Moreover, with the overwhelming majority of his tax cuts going to the wealthiest few in America, the plan is simply, in the words of former New York mayor Mario Cuomo, “class warfare.” With unemployment at an eight-year high, the paucity of initiatives to stimulate employment in the president’s plan means continued economic difficulties.

Former President Bill Clinton recognized that as more and more people go out of work, due to the deteriorating economy, affordable health care for all Americans must be a primary concern. Prescription drug benefits for seniors (a staple of Democratic policy) are a great start. But President Bush’s idea of forcing seniors to choose between prescription drug benefits and HMOs will only decrease access to affordable, high quality medical care. Moreover, the president’s suggestion to limit liability for the “malady” of medical malpractice and his emphasis on the private sector as the solution to the health care crisis is evidence of his true health care agenda: caring for the wealthy and big businesses over the nation’s citizens.

Also, the president made almost no mention of education in his Address. In a time where more people are flocking to higher education to avoid the rough economy, the president is doing nothing to make higher education more accessible to a broader range of Americans. Indeed, he has come out in strong opposition to the University of Michigan’s Supreme Court battle to effectuate the right to higher education for more Americans—a note absent in the Address. Even though the government’s own military academies have policies recognizing the validity of race as a factor in the admissions process, the president has decided to limit the right of Americans to attend our educational institutions.

Astoundingly, the president did offer some suggestions for improving our nation. His proposal to increase participation in mentoring and service programs is laudable. Asking Congress to allocate funding for research into hydrogen-powered automobiles and cleaner, more efficient energy sources is, though long overdue, impressive. To propose a $15 billion program to fight AIDS in Africa is a true act of compassion. What remains to be seen, however, is how long these proposals will remain on the table once the grim reality of the failure of the president’s economic plan becomes clear.

The war on terror and, consequently, - or so the president would have us think - the war on Iraq, formed the intended climax of the Address. In poll after poll Americans demanded more evidence before accepting a war on Iraq. Last night the president attempted to provide that evidence. Instead he provided only a litany of what we already knew: that Iraq has, at some point in the past, held weapons of mass destruction. He provided no evidence that Iraq currently holds those weapons or that it intends to use them. He provided no evidence that waging war on Iraq would prevent terrorists from acquiring Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction (after all, they could remove the weapons from Iraq before a war even begins). Indeed the president told Americans nothing showing that his foreign policy would bring peace; he only illuminated the path to war and increased peril.

What America needs now is not warmongering, tax cuts for the rich, or an increased deficit. Our country deserves our leaders’ attention to our current economic crisis. States and local governments, the beloved children of the Republican Party, are already struggling financially. They need more support from the federal government, not rhetoric praising the private sector. Middle and lower-class taxpayers need relief in the form of jobs, government programs and tax cuts that help them, not the upper crust of American society. And finally, America needs a foreign policy that aims for peace - not one that targets war.

Orellana is the president of the Democratic Law Students Association

Comments

Post a comment