The Independent View: State of the Union

Watched the President give his “State of the Union” speech Tuesday evening. This was my first experience of watching it live. Up until a couple of years ago, I had little interest in politics except to complain about things that affected me and my family. I did watch delayed broadcasts of portions of the speeches and wasn’t impressed with the coverage, as it was mostly slanted one way or another.

I was impressed with the Presidents demeanor and ability to stay on track and for the most part not stumble over words. I assumed he had some sort of visual aid. He tried to emphasize the positive accomplishments and gave most of the credit to members of Congress which was anti Trump who likes to give all the credit to Himself.

What wasn’t impressive was some members of Congress standing and yelling during the speech. Yes, we do have freedom of speech but the proper way to criticize would be to hold a post speech press conference and point out any statements made which you believe to be incorrect. At least the Speaker of the House didn’t stand up and tear up the copy provided to each member, which the previous Speaker did embarrassing herself and her party. What, in my opinion was missing, was a plan to get the Budget and National Debt under control. Also his comments about asking big oil to invest on repairing and building refineries because we will still need oil for the next decade were contradictory to the stated position on eliminated the use of fossil fuel.

There will obviously be press conferences and other media releases praising or defaming the speech. When you read or hear the comments be sure to fact check them and try to look for their motives.

The president made one dangerous statement. He stated here won’t be tax increases on anyone making under $400.000. They will try to pay for all the programs the current Administration wants and the money won’t be available. Also any statement about the lower and middle class being better off today is totally off base. With the cost of goods soaring, even though you’re making more, you’re paying more taxes. The only winner in that game is the government.

The President claimed during the speech his administration created 12 million jobs. Let’s remember most of the jobs “created” during the Biden presidency were jobs that were reopened as the pandemic’s shackles on the economy were taken off. The economy only recently reached the level of employment hit during the previous administration prior to the pandemic.

In addition, Biden’s first two years in office have benefited from previous administration’s policies, such as trying to open up the economy so businesses can hire workers and various impacts from stimulus packages. Additionally a great number of government jobs were created.

Finally, there was no mention of the damage to the country by leaving the borders open. As I said, he was trying to stress the positive and did a good job of doing that.

On a side note, the Chinese balloon has been big news for the last week. No confirmation has yet been released yet on the type of information it was collecting and to whom. The president ordered the balloon shot down. I agree with the military’s action of studying the balloon for its information collecting, transmitting, and other military reasons. I would haven’t shot it down until it cleared U.S. land because it might have been carrying dangerous cargo as in a new strain of the COVID virus, anthrax or hazardous material.