No, I haven’t seen the State of the Union address yet. Erin and I went to see Fitz and the Tantrums at the Roseland Theater in downtown Portland (Best. Concert. Ever.). I had a few more important things on my mind on Tuesday night, and politics seemed a fair distance down the list of priorities. I may watch it today if the opportunity presents itself. Or not.
It was tough to miss the instant reactions, though. I woke up yesterday to all manner of pundits falling into one of two schools: either “Obama is championing poverty!”, or “Obama hit it out of the park!”. The reactions were as predictable as they are tiresome, if for no other reason than they serve as confirmation that the more things change….
For Republicans, Obama could single-handedly develop a cure for cancer, and they’d be dissing him for not doing it sooner. Democrats don’t have the cojones to stand for their convictions, much less stand behind the President. And the pundits? Well, let’s just say that the chattering class hasn’t exactly disappointed with their vacuous, self-righteous, and self-absorbed analysis.
Those who can do. Those who can’t wind up talking to Megyn Kelly on Fox News Channel.
Conservatives panned President Obama’s SOTU as the impotent bleatings of a failed, desperate President looking for anything resembling traction in an election year. Liberals felt that thy could finally dare to hope that the President was beginning to address the issues closest to their hearts. With this yawning chasm separating the two political poles, it’s difficult to imagine how the gap can be bridged. Independent of any partisan reaction to the SOTU, there are a few facts about the state of our nation that seem impervious to spin:
• Since the last SOTU, the economy has created 1.9 million private sector jobs.
• The top 1 percent take home 24 percent of the nation’s income, up from about 9 percent in 1976.
• Private sector job creation under Obama in 2011 was larger than seven out of the eight years Bush was president.
• The top 1 percent of Americans own 40 percent of our country’s wealth while the bottom 80 percent owns only 7 percent.
• Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, 2.5 million young adults gained health insurance.
• For every one job opening, there are four people looking for work.
• Last year, China spent 9 percent of its GDP on infrastructure. The U.S. spent 2.5 percent.
• 2.65 million seniors saved an average of $569 on prescriptions last year thanks to the Affordable Care Act.
• “In 2011, the United States killed Al Qaeda’s most effective propagandist, Anwar al-Awlaki; its operating chief, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman; and of course its founder, chief executive and spiritual leader, Osama bin Laden.”
• Union membership is at a 70-year low.
• Unemployment benefits have lifted 3.2 million people out of poverty.
• The United States used to have the world’s largest percentage of college graduates. We’re now #14.
• One quarter of all contributions to federal campaigns come from 0.01 percent of Americans.
• 47.8 percent of households that receive food stamps are working, because having a job is not enough to keep them out of poverty.
• In the last three years, 30 major corporations spent more on lobbying than they paid in taxes.
• 50 percent of U.S. workers make less than $26,364 per year.
• More than one in 70 homes faced foreclosure last year.
• Since 1985, the federal tax rate for the 400 wealthiest Americans dropped from 29 percent to 18 percent.
There are real and significant problems that this President must face and attempt to resolve. Republicans can hardly claim that he’s failed to do so when they’ve tossing up obstructions every time he’s put forward a proposal. Democrats can’t be part of the solution until they begin acting like a party with some conviction and backbone.
It’s been said that the definition of insanity is repeating the same actions while expecting different results. Methinks perhaps the definition of insanity was present in the faces of the members of Congress as the listened to the President on Tuesday night. No wonder I fear for the future of my country.
