The annual address to Congress and the nation seems to be coming a little late this year, February 12. I guess there just wasn't enough room on the busy House schedule to fit the President in during the month of January.
President Obama is riding a wave of popularity at the start of the year. Washington Post has him with a 60% favorable rating, his highest since he took office back in 2009. He has the added advantage of an improving economy, which would appear to debunk all the gloom and doom the Republicans would have had us believe during last year's election season. This gives him a golden opportunity to finally put to rest the Bush Doctrine that was enunciated back in his 2002 SOTU address, a.k.a. "Axis of Evil speech," and has haunted us ever since.
It is clear he will outline his proposal for new gun control legislation. We can also expect him to deliver something in the way of a new energy proposal, since his first bill was shelved in the wake of the health care battle. It seems he might seek some federal legislation in regard to Lesbian and Gay civil rights. We can also expect him to present a new immigration policy, which has garnered a lot of press lately. And, no doubt he will press the House to end the phony fiscal cliff rhetoric and raise the debt ceiling so that we can move on with business at hand.
Of course, we will hear a rebuttal. Bobby Jindal seems to have had a remarkable comeback since his horrible rebuttal back in 2009, poised and ready to response to President Obama once again. It seems the Republican Party is desperate for fresh faces, having made Marco Rubio the go-to guy on immigration. We've also been hearing a lot from Rand Paul in recent weeks. Take your pick.
And lets hope he also makes it clear that now is not the time to put all of our economic eggs in the deficit reduction basket. That's what the Republicans want, or that and lower taxes. But as just about any economist will admit, you don't save your way out of a recession. We can handle higher interest rates if at the same time we're stimulating the economy.
ReplyDeleteToo much math for the Republicans to handle. They view it as a zero-sum game.
ReplyDeleteI wrote to all my representatives in favor of Obama's proposed gun legislation. I know it's hopeless, but you have to try since you know the pro-assault weapon people will be out in force.
ReplyDeleteTester actually wrote a sensitive response, citing the killing of children in Connecticut. Baucus is hopeless, citing only the 2nd amendment. I had hoped to get a response from our new congressman, who appears to be a moderate business-oriented republican, but I guess he hasn't received his marching orders yet.
What I reminded them is that the reason people around here want assault weapons is to defend themselves from government -- that means people in Congress -- and against the troops who volunteer to serve in the military.
I fear many of these western representatives are more afraid of the NRA than they are of right wingers with assault weapons aimed at Congress. Now that's scary!
Indeed! Nice to have you back, av. The Bushmaster 223 is apparently the weapon of choice for Doomsday preppers, not stag hunters, but conservative legislators seem easy prey for the NRA. Amazing how an organization that began by promoting gun safety has grown into this behemoth lobby with so much political swing in Washington. Obama isn't proposing much more than that which Reagan and H.W. Bush supported in the way of the Brady Bill, yet you would think he was banning all guns to hear the fiery rhetoric over the second amendment, even equating their "struggle" with the Civil Rights movement. Unbelievable!
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