Before I start, let me just say I felt that President Joe Biden had an opportunity last night to give a game changing speech. To do what this country and what the World needed. Decisive leadership from the greatest country on Earth, nothing less.
Eh, didn’t happen. Expecting Joe Biden to reach the heights of Ronald Reagan or FDR really was dumb on my part. I keep forgetting that he was a mediocre legislator and he has continued that mediocrity into the White House. My bad.
I am not going to say that it was the worst speech ever but let’s look at it objectively. Any politician would have said pretty much the same things at the beginning of their speech. We stand behind the Ukrainian people. We are coming to get you, Vladamir. The World must unite. Yea, we get it. So, listening to the media drool over the beginning of his speech is nauseating.
Let’s move on from there. Domestic issues were expected and he didn’t fail us but the difference between a Ronnie Reagan and Biden(Btw, there are thousands of differences) is that Reagan would actually say something. He would lay out specific plans and goals and work with Congress to get his plans done. Biden laid out our problems, some successes but, maybe I missed it, how are we going to solve the inflation problem again? He said something to the effect that we need to pass all of these different packages and inflation will disappear. Or something like that.
So, we add another trillion dollar spending package doing God knows what and flooding the economy with more cash and that will cure inflation. I am sorry, he is the President, but that is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. To add to that he wants manufacturing of everything to be done in the United States and while in principal that is a noble idea, bringing all manufacturing back to this country is inflationary on a grand scale.
The reason that we lost our ability to manufacture things is simple. It is more expensive here. Wages, utilities and land costs are 40-80% higher here. What that amounts to is paying more for everything. I am not anti-American but let’s be realistic, you want more things to be made here, be prepared to pay more. Forget the fact that there is a growing population in America that feels these manufacturing jobs are beneath them, so good luck hiring people to actually operate that machinery. Don’t expect some high school graduate to work in some repetitive manufacturing job at 15 dollars an hour. They can work in Target for 18 dollars an hour. All this amounts to is more long term inflation.
Back to the speech. There were some interesting points and being the cynic I am, I doubt we will get many positive results from these ideas but it will be worth a try.
I am talking about attacking prescription drug prices for example. They have gotten out of control and the administration will be looking into how they can stem the flow of price increases. Another noble cause but it’s been tried before and it didn’t end well. I am not going to defend drug companies but I will say this, the pharmaceutical industry is literally one of the only industries that spends more than 5% in revenues doing research. Should the wildly profitable drugs be tamed, will that force drug companies to pull back on research? It is a slippery slope and President after President has been handed setback after setback going after prescription drug prices and it is a fair bet that Biden Administration will fail as well.
Let’s be fair here. Biden is not the orator that Obama was or Bill Clinton. He is not a man with vision like Kennedy or Reagan. Why would we expect last nights State of the Union speech to change those facts? We are living in very disturbing times and apparently they will be getting worse and as I said at the beginning of the Pandemic, we look to our leadership to guide us and to be leaders. Do I feel more comfortable now with our leadership? No, I don’t. Do I feel our leadership is on the right path to create success for our country and a solution to a very complex situation overseas. No, I don’t.
As you may recall, I wanted to give Joe Biden a chance. He was our elected President and his success generally means success for our country. With that in mind, the reverse is also true. His failures are our failures and need I remind you, this administration has had more than it’s share of failures. In a very short period of time. Last night’s speech was an opportunity to start digging the administration out of the numerous holes it has dug and the speech failed on many levels.
I do however think that there were some hints in that speech that without saying it directly, his dance with the progressives might be over and if thats the case, good for Joe Biden. Maybe, just maybe, he is showing a little backbone and he will need every inch of that backbone over the coming few months.
Excellent, couldn't have been said any better. I've sent this column to friends, Thanks Again!