What SHS should say

Come, oh, about 10 p.m. tonight

Editor’s note: Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has been chosen by her party to give the Republican response to President Biden’s State of the Union speech tonight. She hasn’t asked us for ideas on her speech (few people do), but when has that ever stopped an editorial column from giving advice? First, no sing-song cadence. (Google “Bobby Jindal response 2009”.) Second, it wouldn’t take much of a guess to realize the president will brag about the economy. Hint: The president will say at the beginning that the state of the union is strong. So she could do worse than to say something like this:

Good evening. Thank you for welcoming me into your homes tonight. I will have to assume that the president has made a case not only for his party’s leadership, but for his own. He may consider tonight the unofficial kickoff of his reelection campaign. Let me lay out a more optimistic future.

There always seems to be controversy in Washington, D.C., and this is nothing new. There was controversy between the two political parties before there were official political parties.

Even before there was a Washington, D.C., and even before this country was put together via our Constitution. So let’s not keep repeating the old line that things have never been worse in our government. Our government was put together to make sure things didn’t go too fast, too soon, too far. With too few compromises.

For example, there are some who say that the two political parties shouldn’t negotiate the debt limit. But when a political party, like mine, only controls one-half of one-third of the government, we need to stand where we can to make our points.

Of course, we will eventually raise the debt limit — for we won’t default on our obligations and send the world into a massive economic collapse. But the United States federal government spends much too much money that it doesn’t have. Imagine a son or daughter coming to you with a massive credit card debt, and you just increase the limit time and time again without even sitting him or her down and explaining the problem — and not even complaining about the problem. Sometimes those in our charge need a good talking-to.

Yes, this debt has been in the making over several decades, and with presidents and Congresses of both parties in charge. But that doesn’t mean that we should continue down that path, without complaint and without debate, just because they did it. Imagine if we went back to the spending that came in the last year of the Obama administration. Including Obamacare and all the government increases that came under his watch. The federal government is taking in so much in taxes today that just going back to that year’s spending — that would be 2016’s fiscal year — we would eliminate the deficit and start paying down the debt. The dollar would be so strong that $2 gasoline would be back in play. But more importantly, we’d be on the path to taking some of the burden off of our children and grandchildren.

Doubtless, the president just told you why the country is doing so well. But in a recent poll, 71% of Americans say this country is on the wrong track. The president is saying, in short, “Who ya going to believe? Me or your lyin’ eyes?”

In the last year, inflation has been on a climb not seen in 40 years. The Fed keeps raising interest rates. And that means we’ll pay more on all that debt. Have you seen the price of eggs lately? This is the Biden economy. But something tells me that, just now, he told Americans how great it’s been. It hasn’t been.

Fiscal conservatives — whether they be Republicans, Democrats, neither, both or in between — know that inflation is a hidden tax, eating at working Americans from the bottom up. We must get our fiscal house in order, or we’ll be hard-pressed to pay for the things that really matter, like a strong military, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. And all the other things that the federal government pays for.

I would give the president a thumbs-up right now for shooting down that spy balloon from Red China. But this is what happens when another country doesn’t have much respect for our capabilities. After the disastrous retreat from Afghanistan, do you blame the ChiComs for doubting the resolve in the White House? An American general of some note said last week that he expects this nation to be fighting with the Chinese mainland in 2025. And with all the munitions and weapons systems that we’re rightly sending to Ukraine these days, we must not forget that this country must be ready to fight two-front wars at the same time. The Heritage Foundation reported last week that the United States is falling behind on restocking the munitions that we’re sending to Kyiv. We can — we must — be able to arm our official allies (and in the case of Ukraine, our friends fighting for their freedom) without making our own military less ready.

Each month, it seems we break a record at the southern border, with more illegal immigrants coming over the Mexican/United States border. As a nation of immigrants, we don’t mind immigration. Even Republicans welcome it. But we want, need and demand legal immigration. Every nation ought to be able to determine who gets in, and when. We have these laws on our books — just like every other nation in the world. Even those liberal democracies in Europe, who often criticize the U.S. for our immigration policies, have fences and laws to control who comes into their country.

The president must get ahold of the crisis at the border. And a crisis it is.

The two parties will have policy differences, and always will. But maybe, in closing, I can offer something that everybody can agree to:

Let’s do away with this State of the Union nonsense every year.

There is nothing in the United States Constitution that requires this dog-and-pony show. The Constitution only says that from time to time the president shall give the Congress a state of the union address. For most of our history, this thing was written and sent down the street from the White House to the Capitol. But now it’s turned into all of this. We are interrupting your television shows and basketball season — for what? To get a little free pub during prime time? I’m sure those of you who bothered to watch had to sit through another hour-and-a-half of an oft-interrupted speech in which the president’s party broke into not-so-spontaneous cheering while my party sat on its collective hands. Then in the next sentence, the members of my party stood and applauded while the Democrats sat and frowned. It’s not only a show, but a boring show at that.

Let’s make tonight the last State of the Union political advertisement. I call on the president to announce that from now on, as long as he is president, he’ll send a written notice of the SOTU to Congress and upload his “speech” to the Internet a minute afterward, and let the American people alone. I suspicion that such a decision would be met with thunderous applause across the country. So much so that it would start a new tradition, and presidents from now on would follow his lead.

If anything can get the president’s poll numbers over 50%, and kick off his reelection campaign on a high note, it would be his making such an announcement tomorrow.

Thank you, good night, and God bless America.