With bitter war in Afghanistan and continuing costs for our effort in Iraq, with a $14 trillion national debt, with annual budget deficits of about $1.4 trillion adding up, and with unemployment 9.4 percent, President Barack Obama tried to be optimistic in his State of the Union address Tuesday night.
“[W]e are the first nation to be founded for the sake of an idea, the idea that each of us deserves the chance to shape our own destiny …,” the president said. “The future is ours to win. … Our free enterprise system is what drives innovation.”
But obviously, our country is taxing too much, and spending too much more. So it was more than welcome when he declared: “I am proposing that starting this year, we freeze annual domestic spending for the next five years. This would reduce the deficit by more than $400 billion over the next decade, and will bring discretionary spending to the lowest share of our economy since Dwight Eisenhower was president.”
Fine. But the trouble is that while Obama says he wants to reduce the deficit “$400 billion over the next decade,” he and Congress are adding more than three times that much to the deficit in just the next year.
Obama admitted, “This freeze will require painful cuts.”
He noted that “most of the cuts and savings I’ve proposed only address annual domestic spending” — a little over 12 percent of the budget.
That led him to mention a very sensitive matter: “reducing health care costs, including … Medicare and Medicaid.” He said Social Security must be put on “solid ground” for future generations.
But he could not resist class warfare rhetoric, saying we “simply cannot afford a permanent extension of the tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans” — who, along with many of the rest of us, are already taxed too much.
He much more wisely said we must reduce the corporate tax rate for the first time in a quarter of a century — but “without adding to the deficit.”
We need more jobs, an increase in productivity and rising exports, he correctly noted. And he encouragingly declared, “I’ve ordered a review of government regulations” — many of which are holding down economic growth.
We need to assure good health care, but the president unfortunately maintained his defense of costly, complex ObamaCare socialized medicine.
Obama was surely right in saying that we need to simplify the confusing tax code.
He addressed Iraq, Afghanistan, al-Qaida and Pakistan, the problems of warfare and the havens of our enemies. He noted that “nearly 100,000 of our brave men and women have left (Iraq) with their heads held high.” But many are still there, with high costs continuing.
He urged more and better education, asking Congress to make permanent a $10,000 tax credit for a student for four years of college.
He spoke of rebuilding crumbling roads and bridges, and expanding high-speed wireless Internet coverage.
He addressed curbing the massive wave of illegal immigration — but also hinted at amnesty for millions of illegals already here.
He had some good points, but none of his plans will be cheap — and some are not even constitutional.
Obama’s State of the Union address expressed hope, but it was short of electrifying and inspiring. We, he and Congress will need tax reform, spending cuts, regulation cuts — and more free-enterprise activity — if we want results.