Published: Saturday, February 23, 2013 at 08:00 AM.
By CALVIN B. KOESY
PANAMA CITY
President Obama delivered his State of the Union address superbly and with his customary confidence. It was actually a ?wish list? of the things that might reflect creditably on his legacy. The harsh reality is that the nation is broke and would have to borrow heavily to accomplish these lofty goals. So the State of the Union is framed in his personal ideology and that of his party and has little to do with the real state of the nation.
As he introduced the wish list, he said? these things will not increase the nation?s deficit by one thin dime. He anticipated the reaction of his serious-minded critics. Anyone who believes his statement just fell off the turnip truck.
He mentioned that because of the energy steps his administration has taken, ?electricity costs less now than it did when he took office.? Perhaps someone else?s does but the writer?s electrical bill is about 18 percent higher that it was a year age despite the much milder winter. Also, motor fuel prices are now doubled what they were when he took office.
In his address he stated that ?sanctions on Iran are working.? There is no doubt that the citizens of Iran are suffering greatly, but the mullahs who run the country are unaffected. The Iranian government has continued relentlessly to develop a nuclear bomb and the missile carrying ability to deliver it.
During his address as the president described the pet project in each of the departments, the television camera panned on each department secretary who offered a smile. The president?s speech was interrupted many times by standing ovations. When the president said, ?We will maintain the best military the world has ever known,? the four heads of the military branches, resplendent in their black and gold dress uniforms, did not crack a smile. They knew that their commander-in-chief had signed off on the sequester bill that will devastate their branch of service. They also knew that they will be asked to do more with less and that the outlook for the nation?s national security is very grim indeed.
The nation?s business community was shocked when the president said, ?We must raise the federal minimum wage and tie it to the cost of living.? They knew that action would be a profound job killer.
The Founding Fathers visualized three coequal branches of government. They somehow knew that for the nation?s business to be conducted effectively, each branch would have to have great respect for each other. The State of the Union is one rare occasion where their leaders are all together in one room listening to the president. They also knew that these leaders would have to make hard practical decisions on public policy. ?
Sen. Marco Rubio followed the president with his view of the state of union. He mentioned that the most pressing problem was the increasing deficit. It was paralyzing private investment and preventing economic growth. He said that the economic growth was stagnating at around 2 percent a year and we needed at least 4 percent economic growth. The growth of entitlements was the single most contributing factor to the deficit. He said, ?The president?s plan does nothing to save Medicare and Social Security.? He pressed for limiting government, lowering taxes and encouraging the growth of the private sector.
The frightening thing about the two different speeches is that the junior senator from Florida, with less than three years of service at the national level, has a keener sense of the true state of the union than the president who has available to him the sharpest minds in the country.
In the Bible, the Book of Proverbs has an interesting statement on human behavior: ?Pride only breeds quarrels, but wisdom is found in those who seek (good) advice.? The word in parenthesis is the writer?s.
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