I was quite impressed with President Obama’s speech to the Joint Session of Congress last night. While there was not much that was substantively new, I appreciated the fact that he got up there and stated what has been on pretty much everyone’s mind lately. And while he didn’t make light of the subject, I do think he brought just the right touch of levity to the situation: We are in tough economic times, and we will have some political haggling, but we do need to remember who sent us here and do the work they want us to do.
What most impressed me about the speech was the three-legged approach to fixing the country’s economic ills that Obama proposed: fixing the health care problems, fixing education, and fixing banking. These three items are absolutely critical if we want to flourish as a nation. How we do it is where we will probably see more political bickering. This being said, I do appreciate Obama’s sense that he will listen to parties on all sides of an issue and welcomes ideas from all around.
After watching the speech, I debated with myself whether to turn off the tube and think about how happy I am we have an administration in power that seems to be making good on its promise to bring more transparency to DC. However, I really wanted to see what the Republican party would say in its response.
Watching Bobby Jindal speak took me back to some of my high school debates, figuratively speaking, of course. Jindal’s ideas, some of which resonated with me, came up short because of the style of delivery he chose – as if Mr. Jindal was talking down to children. While Obama is a tough act to follow when speaking, I hardly expected such a tentative response.
Insofar as the content of Jindal’s speech was concerned, I was most disappointed with the continued scary rhetoric that all the Democratic party wants to do is enlarge the government, particularly as it pertains to healthcare. While I wholly welcome the increase in taxes for those who make more than $250,000 per year, it hardly seems likely that we can afford to increase the size of our government. In fact, I would suggest that Obama’s plan doesn’t increase the size of government as much as it right-sizes it, building a foundation from which we can prosper once again. Applying the right amount of oversight, so that we can clean up messes like we have now, and prevent them from happening in the future, with an appropriate mix of regulation, rather than the irrational exuberance that was the hallmark of the last administration.
I feel that we are getting back onto the right track.
I welcome your comments.
