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Union Status 02014
Feb. 1st, 2014 06:38 pmArticle Two, Section 3 of the United States Constituion states:
"He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States."
Thus, the President chose to fulfill his obligation by speaking to a joint session of Congress on 28 January 02014. We're pulling information from having watched the address and from the official White House transcript for the 28 January 02014 address. The address chose to focus on the following areas:
Seems like the President was interested in a message of things going well despite the obvious "problems" that have plagued his presidency. The financial crisis that was supposed to sap his energy, the health care reform that was supposed to have burnt up all his political capital and be sabotaged to the point of uselessness, the sundry amounts of disenfranchisement, abortion bans, and manufactured scandals, from the Birthers through Solyndra and Benghazi, nothing that has been thrown at this President has been able to do much more than divert the flow for a bit. Until the Republicans decided to sandbag and basically stop everything, at which point they were hoping the public would tar with a broad brush and cry "a pox on both their houses." That hasn't quite happened yet, but it seems like a good idea for the President to now start running against a Congress that can't get its act together, doing things that the executive can, and generally taking stands on populist issues to get there people involved in pressuring the legislators, having spent sufficient time trying to make things work and being rebuffed.
It wasn't a barnburner, but I think it hit a lot of the topics that the base wanted to hear and is interested in right now, and it places Republicans in the position of advocating against very popular things.
Then came the responses.
The Republican response (using United Press International's transcript of the Republican response, and listening to the speech): The normal "we're the party of small government" opening, the insistence that the President's policies aren't working and are going in reverse, and...as usual, rather light on the policy hints and possibilities and thoughts of solutions. One of these years, I'd like a substantive response that talks about actual policy elements that are underway and genuine disagreements, rather than platitudes and keyword-laden moments. The response mimics the speech, and probably wants to try and out-Dream the President's focus on the Dream, but it lacks substance to back that up.
Then came the Tea Party response (using the Salt Lake Tribune's transcript): The Tea Party response is...probably the best of the three responses, because it talks about specific policies currently being proposed, it make specific accusations against Congress and the President about how they promote and increase inequality, and it frames solutions to those problems in populist ways - taking power away from a government interested in enriching its own coffers and those of their cronies and friends and stopping programs that are seen as overreach and replacing them with better solutions. Instead of matching rhetoric for rhetoric, it talks populism and policy wonkery. The official response would do well to follow this idea - which also requires the establishment have actual proposals to advocate for.
Finally, the Rand Paul response (using a transcript from Western Journalism): Rand Paul is surprisingly more substantive than the official Republican response, even if he is a one-note speaker about the need to cut spending and avoid tax increases for most of the speech. He attacks both parties and their unwillingness to let their sacred cows be touched, before finishing the speech up with several fringe theories and ideas about an imperial presidency, the apparent disregard for the Second Amendment, and other common Paul complaints about Congress and the President.
Still, Rand Paul's one idea was more than the zero ideas presented by the Republican response. That shouldn't be true.
Knowing that this year is an election year, I don't have very high hopes for anything getting done by legislation. If the President can get anything done this year, it will likely defy the expectations.
"He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States."
Thus, the President chose to fulfill his obligation by speaking to a joint session of Congress on 28 January 02014. We're pulling information from having watched the address and from the official White House transcript for the 28 January 02014 address. The address chose to focus on the following areas:
- The Dream - A significant part of the President's address was devoted to the concept of the American Dream, the basic idea that success is possible in United States society (where success is defined as a comfortable middle-class lifestyle) through the application of hard work, and that privilege based on race, class, gender identity, education, neighborhood, and the like are not to be determining factors on whether any individual can achieve The Dream. To that end, the President highlighted the following goals and achievements of his administration:
- The economy is recovering, which should be used to hire veterans, provide training for community college students, fund basic research, assist exporters, high tech, and those who don't want to deal with the morass of patent law or tax disincentives to hire United States workers. The unemployed should stop being jerked around and having their unemployment insurance expire because of Congressional inability.
- Raise the minimum wage of federal contractors to $10.10/hr USD, as an incentive for states and businesses to do the same or surpass the federal guideline. Women should be paid equally if they are doing equal work. Make tax credits for working people expand, and develop instruments and laws that encourage all working people to be able to save for retirement and to take those savings with them wherever they go.
- The United States is reducing their carbon footprint and moving more toward energy independence through the use of natural gas as a bridge fuel toward more solar, wind, and other renewable power, the increased preservation of federal lands, and the use of stricter standards for carbon emissions and fuel efficiency of vehicles.
- Immigration can be fixed, if only the House will pass the Senate bill that has been sent to them.
- Voting need to become a core civic institution again, and be reformed so that not only will voting be fair, it will be swift - the kind of swift that could be accomplished in the federally-allotted amount of time someone has to vote (if their work shift prevents them from going to the polls when off work).
- Finally, health care reform is working for everyone - millions are now covered through expanded government programs and millions more are covered under private insurance policies. Seniors enjoy reduced drug prices, women have their care covered without having to purchase expensive riders, and costs should go down for everyone because of it. So more people should be signed up to accelerate these good things.
All of the above would be happening, moving faster, or otherwise making progress and contributing, if there wasn't an intransigent party who wants to waste time holding symbolic votes, filibustering everything, and gridlocking. If people are to start believing in the Dream again, the government has to function. Legislation has to pass that will actually do things for people. So, wherever it is possible, the executive will be acting alone to make things better. Like raising the federal contractor wage. - The Diplomacy - The war in Afghanistan is finally coming to an end. The war in Iraq is done. There's still work to be done rooting out terrorists around the world, but it's not going to be alone. But we're also giving diplomacy a chance and trying to get the country off of a permanent war footing. It's time to close Gitmo and make sure that intelligence gathering is with purpose. Syria is working, Israel and Palestine are talking to each other, and Iran isn't making nuclear things. Don't screw it up by passing new sanctions. Don't screw it up by assuming other people are always evil and can only be defeated by military force. Try talking for once, whether to your people across the aisle or to other governments.
Seems like the President was interested in a message of things going well despite the obvious "problems" that have plagued his presidency. The financial crisis that was supposed to sap his energy, the health care reform that was supposed to have burnt up all his political capital and be sabotaged to the point of uselessness, the sundry amounts of disenfranchisement, abortion bans, and manufactured scandals, from the Birthers through Solyndra and Benghazi, nothing that has been thrown at this President has been able to do much more than divert the flow for a bit. Until the Republicans decided to sandbag and basically stop everything, at which point they were hoping the public would tar with a broad brush and cry "a pox on both their houses." That hasn't quite happened yet, but it seems like a good idea for the President to now start running against a Congress that can't get its act together, doing things that the executive can, and generally taking stands on populist issues to get there people involved in pressuring the legislators, having spent sufficient time trying to make things work and being rebuffed.
It wasn't a barnburner, but I think it hit a lot of the topics that the base wanted to hear and is interested in right now, and it places Republicans in the position of advocating against very popular things.
Then came the responses.
The Republican response (using United Press International's transcript of the Republican response, and listening to the speech): The normal "we're the party of small government" opening, the insistence that the President's policies aren't working and are going in reverse, and...as usual, rather light on the policy hints and possibilities and thoughts of solutions. One of these years, I'd like a substantive response that talks about actual policy elements that are underway and genuine disagreements, rather than platitudes and keyword-laden moments. The response mimics the speech, and probably wants to try and out-Dream the President's focus on the Dream, but it lacks substance to back that up.
Then came the Tea Party response (using the Salt Lake Tribune's transcript): The Tea Party response is...probably the best of the three responses, because it talks about specific policies currently being proposed, it make specific accusations against Congress and the President about how they promote and increase inequality, and it frames solutions to those problems in populist ways - taking power away from a government interested in enriching its own coffers and those of their cronies and friends and stopping programs that are seen as overreach and replacing them with better solutions. Instead of matching rhetoric for rhetoric, it talks populism and policy wonkery. The official response would do well to follow this idea - which also requires the establishment have actual proposals to advocate for.
Finally, the Rand Paul response (using a transcript from Western Journalism): Rand Paul is surprisingly more substantive than the official Republican response, even if he is a one-note speaker about the need to cut spending and avoid tax increases for most of the speech. He attacks both parties and their unwillingness to let their sacred cows be touched, before finishing the speech up with several fringe theories and ideas about an imperial presidency, the apparent disregard for the Second Amendment, and other common Paul complaints about Congress and the President.
Still, Rand Paul's one idea was more than the zero ideas presented by the Republican response. That shouldn't be true.
Knowing that this year is an election year, I don't have very high hopes for anything getting done by legislation. If the President can get anything done this year, it will likely defy the expectations.
