By Mark David Blum, Esq.

Pursuant to Article II, §3 of the United States Constitution, the President shall, “from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” I fully expect my President to adhere to this Constitutional mandate. Instead, Mr. Bush gave us lies, false and empty promises, and failed to mention a word about the State of the Union.

After sucking up to the obvious hostile House in which he stood, the President came right out and said he was not giving us the current state of the union. What he gave us instead was empty rhetoric.

For example; he started right in with, “next week” he would give a full report on the economy. Frankly, that was his job last night. Then the President went off and stated his “three goals” for the economy. He said he wanted a ‘balanced federal budget’, without raising taxes, and that he insisted on spending discipline including cutting the deficit in half.

Let us review, shall we. When he took office, the federal budget was not only balanced, but it was in the black. No tax break since the Clinton era has been offered to the poor, blue collar, and working classes. As for cutting the deficit; there shouldn’t be a deficit but-for the irresponsible spending of the Republicans for the past six years. My President needs five more years to balance the budget?

With 35 million Americans going to bed hungry every night, with schools and infrastructure collapsing everywhere, with health care unavailable, and jobs and corporations cutting salaries and benefits, and for the stock market to be just above where it was moments before he took office, for my President stand there with a straight face and declare the economy is strong took a great deal of chutzpah. It is not strong; it is competent and barely holding up under the great weight of the irresponsible spending by the President and the Defense Department.

I really enjoyed the smirk on the Vice President’s face when the President raised the issue of earmarks. Gladly it would be honorable to expose how congress doles out payola from tax dollars. The President’s call however is disingenuous as he never raised this issue when his Party dominated both Houses of Congress. Apparently this is a trick to tackle and trap the Democrat majority now that the Republicans have raped and drained the treasury. The Cheney smirk revealed this dirty little plan.

This same argument was raised in the call to bipartisanship. Nothing this President or his Party of God has done in the past six years demonstrates any interest in bipartisanship. For six years, we have suffered the ‘take it or suck it’ attitude from the Republicans. Now that they are in the minority, suddenly the President calls for bipartisanship? Bipartisanship can come about AFTER the mess made by the President and theocrats of the Republican party is cleaned up.

More proof of the meaninglessness of the President’s presentation is the discussion of medical insurance. My President wants Congress to work together and create a pool of money to fund the retirement of insurance company executives. He spoke often and much about insurance, insurance, insurance. Not a single word was offered as an alternative to the leaching misery that the insurance industry foists upon the costs of medicine. Again, blaming lawyers for high medical costs, the President completely ignored the real cause of skyrocketing medical costs: Insurance. A real visionary would have encouraged Congress to find a solution alternative to the practice of giving money to an intervening third party who then decides for you what kind and how much medical care to which you are entitled.

Also part of the great lie last night was the call to “fix and save” social security and medicare. No details were offered and no criticism extended. What is there to fix? What is needed is for the President to stop tapping into the social security fund to pay for his war in the middle east.

Same with education: Rather than present ideas on how to enhance education, the President argued we should stick with his ‘No Child Left Behind’ policy. Despite proving itself a failure, the President gave us nothing on education. His best position would have been that the Federal Government is getting out of the Education business. Nothing better defines a local issue than Education. Frankly Mr. President, this issue is not for you.

The two favorite parts of the speech were the discussion about energy and the discussion of the War. My President argued we need new technologies and then selected coal, wind, and solar as being the sources of these “new” energies. He wants us to rush backwards from oil to coal. Perchance does this have anything to do with the coal mining states and the Republican defeats? Corn and ethanol are not replacements for oil as both cost more energy than they save and only the red state farmers benefit. Again, our President seems to be creating tax dollars for his patrons to assure their loyalty in the next election.

My President further obnoxiously proclaimed that the United States should reduce its use of gasoline 20 percent in ten years. This stupid claim that brought the House to its feet was nothing more than masturbation for the masses. Nobody in that House will (hopefully) be in government in ten years and so none of them will have to answer for this great promise. Besides, of what value is a 20 percentum reduction in gasoline usage going to do to change our economy or dependency on Canadian oil? The first time the Vice President clapped for his Boss was when Mr. Bush proclaimed he was doubling the strategic oil reserve. This is why the price of oil has been rising lately and for that, the Vice President and almost half of Congress applauded.

What really scared me and caught my attention was the proclamation by the President that the war he started is going to outlast him, his administration, and will continue for generations to come. Apparently he took us from a peaceful world and is intent on leaving this nation embroiled in a war against an unseen enemy who is targeting us specifically because we are involved in this war. Mr. Bush has created the perfect war/storm in which the war continues to feed itself and goes on ad infinitum. Those who applauded his words should themselves grab a gun and go patrol Baghdad.

The bottom line is that this President proved last night once again why he is a complete failure. He does not inspire. There is no leadership. His speechwriters used the same old con game of throwing out buzz words that bring folks to their feet but which is at its core, nothing but empty rhetoric.

My President failed his primary role last night and did not report on the State of the Union. Instead what he reported was that he intends to continue to rape and deplete the treasury. He adamantly insisted on continuing failed policies and practices. Most embarrassingly, he took great pride in his plan to bring this nation almost back to where it was just before he took office. Congratulations Mr. President; you brought us back to start.