Politics

A State of Denial

By Rep. Jim McDermott

America needed to hear from a leader tonight, but instead we heard from a follower: a president following his same, worn out and ineffective solutions to the real problems facing the American people.

The President called for spending more and more and more, and he would do so by mortgaging America again and again and again. He wants to borrow everything from foreign countries; this was a speech by a president who has lost touch with reality.

Every time he used the word ?trust? he needed to add ?and verify? because this Administration has regularly employed a state of denial when asked to provide leadership at home and abroad.

We?ve heard it before and we heard it again tonight: Be afraid. That?s the President?s war strategy and he made clear tonight that he intends to phase Iraq into a perpetual war; Congress must ensure that this President cannot unilaterally keep America at war.

The President reaffirmed his intention for the American people to go it alone on health care, which will enable the very wealthy to pay for good health while the rest of America prays they remain in good health.

To listen to the President, the economy is fine, and the American Middle Class had better get used to a falling standard of living. The president claims success even as more and more Americans file unemployment claims.

We trusted our nation to someone who professed to be a compassionate conservative who would govern on behalf of all the people. Instead we got an Administration that spends every day in office dividing America into a nation governed on behalf of the richest 1%, leaving the rest of America falling farther behind.

For too many Americans, what they will remember most about tonight?s State of the Union speech is that it will be the last.

Full post as published by The Gavel on January 28, 2008 (boomark / email).