Like many Americans, I viewed on my computer President Obama’s speech Tuesday night before a joint session of Congress. As always, the president demonstrated his robust rhetorical skills. Nonetheless, I took issue with some parts of the address, and noticed that other parts really stood out from the rest. In the speech, the president attempted to justify the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, while also outlining additional priorities such as expanding the role of the central government in education and healthcare. Each of these instances will be quoted herein, and followed by my thoughts on them. Feel free as always to offer insights and feedback.

The weight of this crisis will not determine the destiny of this nation. The answers to our problems don’t lie beyond our reach. They exist in our laboratories and universities; in our fields and our factories; in the imaginations of our entrepreneurs and the pride of the hardest-working people on Earth. Those qualities that have made America the greatest force of progress and prosperity in human history we still possess in ample measure. What is required now is for this country to pull together, confront boldly the challenges we face, and take responsibility for our future once more.

President Obama is generally right on this point, but the last line in this excerpt is puzzling. It implies that there was a point when we gave up responsibility for our future. There are different times in our history when such could be argued to have occurred, but all or nearly all of them occurred before George W. Bush even had a career in politics, let alone was president.

We have known for decades that our survival depends on finding new sources of energy. Yet we import more oil today than ever before.

The president fails to mention here that more of the energy needs of the United States could be met at home if more offshore drilling and exploration was permitted.

The cost of health care eats up more and more of our savings each year, yet we keep delaying reform. Our children will compete for jobs in a global economy that too many of our schools do not prepare them for. And though all these challenges went unsolved, we still managed to spend more money and pile up more debt, both as individuals and through our government, than ever before.

Well, if they give out a prize for the most ironic policy statement of the year, for 2009 thus far, President Obama has a lock on that trophy. All the president has done in office thus far besides making hypocritical executive appointments is add substantial sums of money onto that national debt. The more successful states in the global economy now also seem to be those who enact more rather than fewer policies favoring businesses and commerce.

People bought homes they knew they couldn’t afford from banks and lenders who pushed those bad loans anyway

What the President leaves out of the speech (yes, I checked) is that government regulations introduced during  the Clinton and Carter administrations incentivized the pushing of such loans. If there is to be a fix to the system of credit in the United States, it must entail revising or repealing the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 and its 1990′s revisions.

Now is the time to act boldly and wisely – to not only revive this economy, but to build a new foundation for lasting prosperity. Now is the time to jumpstart job creation, re-start lending, and invest in areas like energy, health care, and education that will grow our economy, even as we make hard choices to bring our deficit down.

Well, the president is right in the first part of this passage, but a recession is a time to tighten belts rather than grow government. New federal programs in the areas of health care, energy, and education will not themselves end the recession.

As soon as I took office, I asked this Congress to send me a recovery plan by President’s Day that would put people back to work and put money in their pockets. Not because I believe in bigger government – I don’t.

The facts suggest otherwise.

Not because I’m not mindful of the massive debt we’ve inherited – I am.

Of course, he fails to mention that he, along with his party, contributed substantially and unnecessarily to that deficit over the past few years.

I called for action because the failure to do so would have cost more jobs and caused more hardships. In fact, a failure to act would have worsened our long-term deficit by assuring weak economic growth for years. That’s why I pushed for quick action. And tonight, I am grateful that this Congress delivered, and pleased to say that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is now law.

Is the president seriously suggesting that the deficit would grow by spending less money? Also, isn’t the above an example of fearmongering, and the opposite of the change which so many Americans apparently felt that President Obama would represent?

Because of this plan, there are teachers who can now keep their jobs and educate our kids. Health care professionals can continue caring for our sick. There are 57 police officers who are still on the streets of Minneapolis tonight because this plan prevented the layoffs their department was about to make.

As a Marylander, I’m glad that a city I’ve never visited is using federal tax revenue to meet its local jurisdictional needs. Sadly, this is money which could have been returned to the people of the country who could then have possibly used it to visit Minneapolis. Such would certainly have done more to stimulate the economy than increasing the administrative bureaucracy of a relatively small U.S. city. Similarly the problem in American public education today often is not money, but rather how said money is used. Regardless, education generally should be the providence of the states which have a better assessment of what local needs are than does someone from the other end of the country.

That is why I have asked Vice President Biden to lead a tough, unprecedented oversight effort – because nobody messes with Joe.

If, as claimed, “nobody messes with Joe,” then why is he not the president? Maybe next, the person responsible for overseeing the IRS and other agencies of the treasury department will be an individual who didn’t pay taxes s/he owed. Oh, wait…

You see, the flow of credit is the lifeblood of our economy. The ability to get a loan is how you finance the purchase of everything from a home to a car to a college education; how stores stock their shelves, farms buy equipment, and businesses make payroll.

But credit has stopped flowing the way it should. Too many bad loans from the housing crisis have made their way onto the books of too many banks. With so much debt and so little confidence, these banks are now fearful of lending out any more money to households, to businesses, or to each other. When there is no lending, families can’t afford to buy homes or cars. So businesses are forced to make layoffs. Our economy suffers even more, and credit dries up even further.

That is why this administration is moving swiftly and aggressively to break this destructive cycle, restore confidence, and re-start lending.

Agreed. Now, why exactly wasn’t this the focus of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act? Certainly, a person who sought to reduce the federal deficit would have tackled this problem before spending billions on new and unrelated government programs. That this wasn’t the Obama administration’s first priority is nothing short of absurd.

Third, we will act with the full force of the federal government to ensure that the major banks that Americans depend on have enough confidence and enough money to lend even in more difficult times. And when we learn that a major bank has serious problems, we will hold accountable those responsible, force the necessary adjustments, provide the support to clean up their balance sheets, and assure the continuity of a strong, viable institution that can serve our people and our economy.

So, who is to hold accountable the bureaucrats who helped encourage banks to make loans to those who could never pay?

I intend to hold these banks fully accountable for the assistance they receive, and this time, they will have to clearly demonstrate how taxpayer dollars result in more lending for the American taxpayer. This time, CEOs won’t be able to use taxpayer money to pad their paychecks or buy fancy drapes or disappear on a private jet. Those days are over.

No, but apparently, members of Congress may remain able to freely pass pay increases. I see a problem here.

Still, this plan will require significant resources from the federal government – and yes, probably more than we’ve already set aside. But while the cost of action will be great, I can assure you that the cost of inaction will be far greater, for it could result in an economy that sputters along for not months or years, but perhaps a decade. That would be worse for our deficit, worse for business, worse for you, and worse for the next generation. And I refuse to let that happen.

The U.S. has weathered long-running downturns before just fine. Of course, what is not being said here is that inaction is an impossibility, because decisions would still be made, and individuals, families, and state/local governments would act in an instance where a need was said to exist, and the federal government did not become involved.

But I also know that in a time of crisis, we cannot afford to govern out of anger, or yield to the politics of the moment. My job – our job – is to solve the problem. Our job is to govern with a sense of responsibility. I will not spend a single penny for the purpose of rewarding a single Wall Street executive, but I will do whatever it takes to help the small business that can’t pay its workers or the family that has saved and still can’t get a mortgage.

This excerpt leaves me wondering then, why was the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act so heavy on new spending, and so light on new tax cuts? Granting greater access to more capital to families and small businesses is an effective means of helping them to pay their debts.

So I ask this Congress to join me in doing whatever proves necessary. Because we cannot consign our nation to an open-ended recession. And to ensure that a crisis of this magnitude never happens again, I ask Congress to move quickly on legislation that will finally reform our outdated regulatory system.

Probably nearly everyone can be brought to support this goal. The problem is that to some the phrase “reform our outdated regulatory system” means add another layer of bureaucracy to a system already drowning in bureaucracy.I will be impressed if President Obama is not among those who feel that way.

The only way this century will be another American century is if we confront at last the price of our dependence on oil and the high cost of health care; the schools that aren’t preparing our children and the mountain of debt they stand to inherit. That is our responsibility.

Well, no, Mr. President, some of those issues if not all of them could be handled locally. The American people have a right to know why their states tax them if not to govern and meet local needs where they arise.

In the next few days, I will submit a budget to Congress. So often, we have come to view these documents as simply numbers on a page or laundry lists of programs. I see this document differently. I see it as a vision for America – as a blueprint for our future.

The Library of Congress is within walking distance of the White House. There one can find a much older document which is truly a vision for what America should be, and also was meant to serve as a blueprint for our future. As a former professor of constitutional law, I’m sure you’ve already read it though.

My budget does not attempt to solve every problem or address every issue.

So that’s what the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was for. Now it all makes sense. I, for one, am glad that the president knows his priorities.

It reflects the stark reality of what we’ve inherited – a trillion dollar deficit, a financial crisis, and a costly recession.

Things for which Democrats are no less than partially responsible. Also, I’m not sure the deficit Obama inherited was that high. Certainly, the deficit will not be reduced any time soon, if the actions of the Obama administration thus far are any indication.

But that does not mean we can afford to ignore our long-term challenges. I reject the view that says our problems will simply take care of themselves; that says government has no role in laying the foundation for our common prosperity.

There are things which governments should do, and things which different levels of government could or should do. But right now, the ederal government does too much.

History reminds us that at every moment of economic upheaval and transformation, this nation has responded with bold action and big ideas.

The people of this country certainly have, sometimes in spite of government rather than because of it.

We are a nation that has seen promise amid peril, and claimed opportunity from ordeal. Now we must be that nation again

This statement concerns me. When does the president think that the U.S. stopped being that nation?

We invented solar technology, but we’ve fallen behind countries like Germany and Japan in producing it. New plug-in hybrids roll off our assembly lines, but they will run on batteries made in Korea

This is the result of trade and mutual prosperity, both of which are things the current U.S. president in particular should embrace.

But to truly transform our economy, protect our security, and save our planet from the ravages of climate change, we need to ultimately make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy. So I ask this Congress to send me legislation that places a market-based cap on carbon pollution and drives the production of more renewable energy in America. And to support that innovation, we will invest fifteen billion dollars a year to develop technologies like wind power and solar power; advanced biofuels, clean coal, and more fuel-efficient cars and trucks built right here in America.

Certainly, allowing the market to operate more freely could lead to some of these goals being achieved more cost effectively. Unfortunately, the president seems to think that problems, real or perceived, can be fixed by throwing money at them.

But we are committed to the goal of a re-tooled, re-imagined auto industry that can compete and win. Millions of jobs depend on it. Scores of communities depend on it. And I believe the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it.

Perhaps the president simply does not know that the first automobile powered by an internal combustion engine was invented by a German, Karl Benz. What I know is that this line in the speech will likely be overlooked by many of the people who obsessed over every misstatement muttered by the 43 president during his time in office.

We don’t do what’s easy. We do what is necessary to move this country forward.

I would like to believe this to be true, but so far, I’ve only seen Obama, Reid, and Pelosi pursue the easy rather than the necessary.

Already, we have done more to advance the cause of health care reform in the last thirty days than we have in the last decade

I thought that the president was smarter than to tell an outright lie. Extending SCHIP and funding pork projects is not substantively more than several initiatives  related to health care enacted during the George W. Bush administration.

This budget builds on these reforms. It includes an historic commitment to comprehensive health care reform – a down-payment on the principle that we must have quality, affordable health care for every American. It’s a commitment that’s paid for in part by efficiencies in our system that are long overdue. And it’s a step we must take if we hope to bring down our deficit in the years to come.

Should increasing the role of the federal government in health care really be a priority right now? If the federal government really wants to get more Americans to work, and bring down health care costs, it should vigorously current enforce immigration rules.

Right now, three-quarters of the fastest-growing occupations require more than a high school diploma. And yet, just over half of our citizens have that level of education. We have one of the highest high school dropout rates of any industrialized nation. And half of the students who begin college never finish.

Once again, the solution proposed seems to be to throw money at the problem. As a university student, I know that fees are increasing to help manage costs. However, I also know that many cash-strapped universities are also pursuing projects whichcould be delayed with little to no harm done. Apparently, President Obama shares with such institutions of higher learning this faulty assumption that recession is the time to launch ambitious new projects with very high price tags.

I know that the price of tuition is higher than ever, which is why if you are willing to volunteer in your neighborhood or give back to your community or serve your country, we will make sure that you can afford a higher education.

Doesn’t compensating a volunteer defeat the purpose of volunteering. Here again is another ambitious policy proposal. However, I doubt this would in practice work as intended, nevermind the unnecessary expansion of government this entails.

In the end, there is no program or policy that can substitute for a mother or father who will attend those parent/teacher conferences, or help with homework after dinner, or turn off the TV, put away the video games, and read to their child. I speak to you not just as a President, but as a father when I say that responsibility for our children’s education must begin at home.

I don’t think that President Obama has uttered truer words than these. It’s a shame his policy proposals run counter to his rhetoric in this respect.

There is, of course, another responsibility we have to our children. And that is the responsibility to ensure that we do not pass on to them a debt they cannot pay. With the deficit we inherited, the cost of the crisis we face, and the long-term challenges we must meet, it has never been more important to ensure that as our economy recovers, we do what it takes to bring this deficit down.

This is something with which most will once again agree, but as is so often the case with the current president, his actions speak louder than do his words.

I’m proud that we passed the recovery plan free of earmarks, and I want to pass a budget next year that ensures that each dollar we spend reflects only our most important national priorities

The only way this could possibly be true is if the president is defining earmarks very selectively.

My administration has also begun to go line by line through the federal budget in order to eliminate wasteful and ineffective programs. As you can imagine, this is a process that will take some time. But we’re starting with the biggest lines. We have already identified two trillion dollars in savings over the next decade.

This is definitely worthy of praise.

In this budget, we will end education programs that don’t work and end direct payments to large agribusinesses that don’t need them.

This excerpt makes a claim that I will believe once I see the proscribed actions occur. This may one policy pledge where the president does not seriously attempt to deliver results.

To preserve our long-term fiscal health, we must also address the growing costs in Medicare and Social Security. Comprehensive health care reform is the best way to strengthen Medicare for years to come. And we must also begin a conversation on how to do the same for Social Security, while creating tax-free universal savings accounts for all Americans

This would be great, but this is likely not to be seriously attempted. Such efforts have worked so well for Republicans in the past.

Finally, because we’re also suffering from a deficit of trust, I am committed to restoring a sense of honesty and accountability to our budget. That is why this budget looks ahead ten years and accounts for spending that was left out under the old rules – and for the first time, that includes the full cost of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. For seven years, we have been a nation at war. No longer will we hide its price.

The president should be praised for the excerpt above.

We are now carefully reviewing our policies in both wars, and I will soon announce a way forward in Iraq that leaves Iraq to its people and responsibly ends this war.

One finds this comment interesting considering that the president later states that “We are not quitters”.

As we meet here tonight, our men and women in uniform stand watch abroad and more are readying to deploy. To each and every one of them, and to the families who bear the quiet burden of their absence, Americans are united in sending one message: we honor your service, we are inspired by your sacrifice, and you have our unyielding support. To relieve the strain on our forces, my budget increases the number of our soldiers and Marines. And to keep our sacred trust with those who serve, we will raise their pay, and give our veterans the expanded health care and benefits that they have earned.

This is an area in which Republicans and Democrats will agree on principle if nothing else. As a party, we should stick by this notion.

I know that we haven’t agreed on every issue thus far, and there are surely times in the future when we will part ways. But I also know that every American who is sitting here tonight loves this country and wants it to succeed. That must be the starting point for every debate we have in the coming months, and where we return after those debates are done. That is the foundation on which the American people expect us to build common ground.

For me, this excerpt reflects the best part of President Obama’s address. On this point if on no other, the president is correct. Let this be our guiding influence when we tackle the issues awaiting our nation today and in the future.

Overall, this was a well-crafted speech, even if it was looser with facts than I would have liked. Nonetheless, there are many policy concerns noted in the speech about which Republicans should be concerned.

Last 5 posts by James Kane

• A November to Remember - November 8th, 2010
• On hope and fear - October 18th, 2010
• Expecting Different Results - September 12th, 2010
• A glaring omission on Iraq - August 31st, 2010
• Employing a losing strategy - August 7th, 2010