A brief recap: I actually thought this was an excellent speech - as usual. President Obama managed to provide a good amount of detail in his plans for the future ... a bit of flip-flopping with his decision for a 3 year freeze on discretionary spending (a flop that I fully support) ... a couple of ballsy jabs at the Republican opposition ... an attempt to rally the wimpy Democrats in Congress ... a few laughs and a lame joke or two ... and not a peep out of Joe Wilson.
And where the heck was Hillary Clinton? She's the Secretary of State, shouldn't she be present? The other cabinet members were there. I was convinced that she had planted a bomb in the capitol building set to go off during the speech - killing the President, Vice President, Speaker of the House, and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate - leaving her as the next in line to the presidency. Sadly, thats not how it went down. These are kinds of things I think about.
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- his primary focus was on the economy, specifically job-creation.
- pledged to impose fees on large financial firms that received Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds to repay taxpayer money
- legislation calling for $30 billion of the money Wall Street banks repay to be reallocated towards helping community banks lend to small businesses, it would create a new small business tax credit, it would eliminate all capital gains taxes on small business investment and provide tax incentives for businesses to invest in new plants and equipment
- urged the Senate to pass a comprehensive energy and climate bill with incentives for businesses to make clean energy achievable
- calls for America to concentrate on creating innovative advanced bio-fuels and clean coal technologies
- “We need to export more of our goods.”
- goal to double American exports over the next 5 years
- “To help meet this goal, we’re launching a National Export Initiative that will help farmers and small businesses increase their exports, and reform export controls consistent with national security."
- called on colleges and universities to do their part to make education more affordable
- proposed giving families with kids enrolled in four-year universities a $10,000 tax credit, and called for an increase in Pell grants
- monthly student loan payments shouldn’t exceed 10 percent of a graduate’s income and that all student loan debt will be forgiven after 20 years of payment or after 10 years if the graduate goes into public service
- “No one in America should go broke because they chose to go to college.”
- called upon Congress to approve a comprehensive health care reform bill that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, and reign in insurance companies
- cites the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate that the bill he supports will save $1 trillion over the next two decades
- admitted his stimulus package added $1 trillion to the national debt but did so to prevent a second great depression
- to pay for that $1 trillion, in 2011, when the economy is stronger, a three-year freeze on the federal government’s discretionary spending that’s not related to national security or entitlement programs
- create a bipartisan Fiscal Proposal Commission to offer a specific set of solutions by a certain deadline to tackle the budget deficit
- impose strict restrictions on lobbyist activity
- approve legislation in response to the recent Supreme Court decision on campaign finance laws
- publish all earmark requests on a single web site before voting
- overturn "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy for glbt military service
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Sounds nice, but we'll see if the President manages to rally Congress and follow through with his agenda.
Also, just a thought - thats a LOT of government action going on. I'm fine with big government, but this has some clusterf*ck potential. But then again, maybe this kind of intervention is necessary to get us out of the hole we've gotten ourselves into. Food for thought...
Tell 'em Hillary.
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