Left And Right Politics

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Last night President Obama held his State Of The Union address and I’m not surprised of how it fell short of everything that the State Of The Union address is meant to be. The purpose of the address is to inform the American people of the country’s current condition and where the present Administration is headed. Obama’s speech talked about how more money is needed to improve our economy. As he said “redouble these efforts” is what will be needed, but how can you do that and expect a different result than the fist time? An $878 Billion stimulus package did nothing for the economy or the unemployment rate.

His speech contained 113 paragraphs and a good percentage of them (32) talked about increased “investments”. It’s amazing how politicians think if they use a different word to describe something, it’s ok. An investment is something you put money into expecting a return on investment. Spending money on pet projects in “hopes” of helping the country is not an investment, it’s spending money.

Our current crisis right now is the fact that Congress and the Administration are spending money that they do not have or the ability to obtain unless they tax the American people more than they already do.Obama did say that he promised to “save”$400 billion of the next ten years, but that’s just a drop in the bucket compared to what is being spent. he did mention two specific programs cuts that his administration has or is going to make, subsides to banks and oil companies. Take note that Obama stated that the money save would not be put towards deficit reduction, but to other spending. How is doing something like that going to improve this country’s crisis? Ironically the former Community Organizer also discussed cutting spending towards community action programs.

The deficit wasn’t even mentioned last night which is a topic (I feel) should be discussed during the State Of The Union address. Our deficit for this year is reaching $1.5 trillion and growing. Washington needs to face up to the fact that they’ve failed the American people of the last 40 years and with the President’s refusal to inform us of the deficit during the address makes me wonder what else they’re not telling us. The current state of this union is in dire straits and we should all be concerned.

Tags: Economy, Government Spending, Obama, state of the union address, taxes

WASHINGTON – Libertarian Party (LP) Chairman William Redpath issued the following statement today in response to President Barack Obama‘s State of the Union address:

“Tonight’s speech was a reminder that, for decades, the policies of Republicans and Democrats alike have failed. Libertarians are asking people to take matters into their own hands. Instead of just complaining, we’re encouraging ordinary Americans to step up and run for Congress on the Libertarian Party ballot line.

I can say exactly the same thing about President Obama’s speech tonight that I said about George W. Bush’s State of the Union speech in January 2008: ‘Tonight’s State of the Union address went much as expected. Instead of calling for a more limited role of the federal government in American society, the President laid out plans that would only increase the government’s intervention into the realm of economics, health care, education and foreign policy.

I am weary of the President’s unspoken premise that only government–indeed, only the federal government–can accomplish good in our society.

President Obama seems to be totally blind to the concept that government can cause problems rather than solve them. His speech was filled with ‘More’: more handouts, more spending, more programs, more bailouts, more regulations. We Libertarians want less government, not more.

Not to be outmatched by the Democrats, the Republican Party conveyed its lack of seriousness in addressing this nation’s government spending problems by having Bob McDonnell, Virginia Governor for eleven (11) days, deliver its rebuttal to the President. If they were really serious about addressing the dire fiscal circumstances of this nation, they would have had Paul Ryan, a six-term congressman from Wisconsin, who has proposed the most serious plan of anyone in the two older parties to keep us from going off a fiscal cliff.

Last week, Alan Auerbach, Professor of Economics and Law at UC Berkeley and US government fiscal policy expert, said that the Democratic and Republican parties are in a ‘death embrace’ with their government spending. The only political party that is rationally and forthrightly addressing the need to cut government spending and end our culture of ever expanding entitlements is the Libertarian Party.

As Americans lose hope in Obama, we Libertarians are warning voters against running back to the Republicans who got us into such big messes in the first place. Republicans started the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Republicans made the false intellectual case for bailing out banks and car companies. Republicans argued that deficits don’t matter. Republicans gave us the giant Medicare expansion bill.

The President’s suggestion of a ‘spending freeze’ was especially ludicrous and insulting to the intelligence of Americans. The amounts involved are minuscule, and Congress won’t accept them anyway. Will Obama sign the spending bills that ignore his ‘freeze’? You bet he will. Instead, the President should demand across-the-board cuts in all areas, including entitlements.

The President talked a lot about jobs. Unfortunately, the policies he supports are responsible for most of the unemployment we see today. High taxes, minimum wage laws, hiring regulations, firing regulations, mandatory unemployment benefits, and other government interference make it much more difficult for businesses to hire and keep employees. As expected, the President’s prescription is to increase the dosage of this government poison.

While our nation is declining dangerously right now, a turnaround could be straightforward and simple with steps like these: 1. Bring our troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan; 2. Stop rewarding failed companies with bailouts; 3. Cut taxes and spending and let the free market work.

Finally, on the matter of political rhetoric, I call upon the two older parties to stop spoon feeding politics to the American people as if we are a bunch of overgrown children. These are difficult times that call for more than rhetorical flourish or positioning a group of diverse people around a politician. Older party politicians need to be specific about their proposed policies, as Libertarians are.

And, I know I’m probably just wasting electrons, but can’t we go back to the days in which the President sent a copy of his speech to Congress and left it at that. The speech last night took 1/7000th of an entire year. I think the vast majority of the American people would agree that we have better ways to spend our time.”

William Redpath has served as the Chairman of the Libertarian Party since 2006. For more information, or to arrange an interview, call LP Executive Director Wes Benedict at 202-333-0008 ext. 222.

The LP is America’s third-largest political party, founded in 1971. The Libertarian Party stands for free markets and civil liberties.

Tags: America, American, Bush, civil liberties, Congress, federal government, foreign policy, free markets, Government, Government Spending, Health Care, libertarian, libertarian party, Obama, Political, politicians, Republican, republican party, republicans and democrats, state of the union address, taxes, Washington