Word Salad

I did listen to the President’s speech last night and, unlike 90% of “people surveyed,” I did not think it was wonderful. That’s because I listened to what he actually said rather than merely to the tone of voice. In between all of the rah-rah sounds about how much “sets us apart” and how good this country has always been at rising to challenges was…

There was the usual plethora of his inconsistencies. Half of the jobs in the future will require an education beyond high school, but every child should get a college degree. That means that half of our jobs will be filled with people who have degrees which they do not need and which cost them tens of thousands to get. Apparently we will not need truck drivers, ditch diggers, landscape operators, etc. Enough with this idea that every child should spend $100,000 or so to get a college degree.

Again he’s going with this nonsense that we are “denying safe haven to those who attacked us.” Dude, they have safe haven elsewhere already.

We’re going to pay to rebuild our nation’s infrastructure by taking away the subsidies we give to oil companies. We’re going to balance the budget by raising taxes on the richest 2% of Americans. I’m going to buy a private 747 by saving pennies in a big jar.

The big issue that I took with his speech was what was missing from it; what to do about today’s problem. His theme was that of a farmer who cannot afford to buy seed corn to plant this year and who is ignoring that issue to focus on the problem of soil erosion.

We’re going to do education, innovation, research and infrastructure so that we can leave a better world to our kids, but no mention of what we are going to do about our kids’ parents who cannot get a job today. He made that lack all the more glaring by saying that, “the stock market has come roaring back," that "corporate profits are up," that “the worst of the recession is over" and that “we have broken the back of the recession."

Tell that, Mr. President, to the millions of people who used to work in to "the shuttered windows of once booming factories, and the vacant storefronts of once busy Main Streets," to which you also referred in your speech, and for which you offered no solution.