State of the Union

[Flip]

Its pretty funny that the republican response after Obama was essentially them saying they would rather watch the country burn than give in on any sort of bi-partisan truce. In true Obama form, he talked a lot about coming and working together in politics, i thought he would have given this up by now. Repubs do not want to play fair, they dont give a shit about whats best for the country, just that they are the ones running it.

Paul Ryan looked like a smarmy demon with his bloodshot eyes. Get some friggin visine, yeesh.

[Imakeholesinu]

I really thought Obama touched on all the points that actually we need to do to win the future except reduce spending. Reductions in spending need to happen first before all of those other things occur. Education should be the first thing that gets money, followed by Infrastructure and clean energy. Unfortunately the cuts the president has proposed are just a drop in the bucket. This nations government is going in the shitter due to the fact that people can't stop using the credit card and fleecing the tax payer.

[Julius Seeker]

Cut military spending. The US military budget is ludicrous; 7 times that of China which is number 2. Also, look at who has been pocketing the money from this military spending; 650 billion+ per year is a lot.

[Imakeholesinu]

Don't just cut it, ask for their surplus back.

[Shrinweck]

Also he already cut military spending.

[Imakeholesinu]

Yeah, by a couple million. A drop in the bucket. When we are 12 trillion in debt, cutting 200+ million is nothing but an insult. That's like paying the minimum on a 17.99% credit card each month and maxing out the card. You'll never get out from under it. Big buisness (oil companies etc) that post record profits and get government assistence obviously don't need that assistence. Take away those tax breaks and subsidies and it may make it a bit better.

[Shrinweck]

It was in the billions. He isn't a miracle worker, you can't identify and cut things so quickly especially when they're so well protected by people who have a tendency to be armed.

[Flip]

Yes yes, he will cut particular budgets while simultaneously 'investing' (read spending billions more) in education and technology? Industry doesnt need the gov to help its research and development in technology. Anything short of 'investing' in the space program, which there essentially is no established industry for, will lead to another massive sinkhole. The gov haphazardly stumbled onto the Internet, which i dont give them complete credit for anyways, so dont expect any miracles. Instead, i see firms sucking all the the blood from the free government money they will receive and developing new technologies at the same pace they would if there wasnt government subsidies because it will only transform into larger salaries for already rich people and bonuses.

Also, ive worked for a company that develops and builds wind farms and natural gas powered plants for the past year and everyone there thinks its laughable that by 2035 we will have 80% of our power coming from clean sources.

[Shrinweck]

No, yeah I agree. Any president that ever breaks from the trend of the rich getting richer and the poor, blah blah will get chewed up into disaster.

[Zeus]

You guys are talking as if he's a dictator and can do whatever the hell he wants while ignoring all other politicians' desires and the desires of those who run both parties (the special interests......a.k.a. big businesses). If you honestly think this guy can do what he wants most of the time you really need to take a long, hard look at what's really going on in your political environment.

Also, why has no one ever talked about the free-trade deal he brokered with South Korea, one of the few things he actually did have control over? He found you guys an estimated $10B a year in trade surplus from a source absolutely no one would have even considered thinking about a year ago. It was such a good deal you never heard a single Republican say anything worse than a gruffled "yeah, it's not bad"-type response. Why is he getting no cred for that? Well, I'll answer that question: because no one (ie. the Republicans) complained, they had nothing to complain about. It was a good deal and a good story for about 3 hours that night then everyone forgot about it to focus on the bantering back and forth and the year-plus strong smear campaign the Republicans have been actively and aggressively conducting. And what's that old saying in the media, "if it bleeds, it leads"? Well, a good story doesn't bleed, an all out fist-fight does, regardless of the merits of the arguments being screamed.

Now I ain't no fan of no politician anywhere (someone call Kup an ambulance with that triple-negative), but you gotta at least give some credit where credit is due. That was a pretty significant, out-of-the-box-thinking deal he scrounged up from nowhere during a worldwide economic downturn (don't even consider thinking the recovery is going that well in most of the developed world). You honestly think many other politicians from either party would even consider trying something like that? And even if you somehow find fault in the deal for no good reason whatsoever (the Republican party couldn't and you know they will jump all over any opportunity whatsoever to add fuel to the bonfire they're causing), at the very least give credit that there was effort put forth in an unorthodox way during a time of severe financial insecurity. At that level, it's not even opinion anymore.