President George W. Bush’s State of the Union Address was
long on rhetoric and short on substance. Attempting to highlight
his domestic policy agenda to deflect attention from his bellicose
foreign policy, the president addressed many problems but offered
few solutions.
The focal point of the first half of the Address was the
economy. The president emphasized his tax cut plan and urged
Congress to make the cuts permanent, arguing that, “what is
good for Americans 3, 5, [or] 7 years from now has to be good for
Americans now.” However, what Americans would have 7 years
from now under Bush’s plan is essentially what Americans have
now, and right now his plan is failing. Moreover, with the
overwhelming majority of his tax cuts going to the wealthiest few
in America, the plan is simply, in the words of former New York
mayor Mario Cuomo, “class warfare.” With unemployment
at an eight-year high, the paucity of initiatives to stimulate
employment in the president’s plan means continued economic
difficulties.
Former President Bill Clinton recognized that as more and more
people go out of work, due to the deteriorating economy, affordable
health care for all Americans must be a primary concern.
Prescription drug benefits for seniors (a staple of Democratic
policy) are a great start. But President Bush’s idea of
forcing seniors to choose between prescription drug benefits and
HMOs will only decrease access to affordable, high quality medical
care. Moreover, the president’s suggestion to limit liability
for the “malady” of medical malpractice and his
emphasis on the private sector as the solution to the health care
crisis is evidence of his true health care agenda: caring for the
wealthy and big businesses over the nation’s citizens.
Also, the president made almost no mention of education in his
Address. In a time where more people are flocking to higher
education to avoid the rough economy, the president is doing
nothing to make higher education more accessible to a broader range
of Americans. Indeed, he has come out in strong opposition to the
University of Michigan’s Supreme Court battle to effectuate
the right to higher education for more Americans””mdash;a note
absent in the Address. Even though the government’s own
military academies have policies recognizing the validity of race
as a factor in the admissions process, the president has decided to
limit the right of Americans to attend our educational
institutions.
Astoundingly, the president did offer some suggestions for
improving our nation. His proposal to increase participation in
mentoring and service programs is laudable. Asking Congress to
allocate funding for research into hydrogen-powered automobiles and
cleaner, more efficient energy sources is, though long overdue,
impressive. To propose a $15 billion program to fight AIDS in
Africa is a true act of compassion. What remains to be seen,
however, is how long these proposals will remain on the table once
the grim reality of the failure of the president’s economic
plan becomes clear.
The war on terror and, consequently, – or so the president would
have us think – the war on Iraq, formed the intended climax of the
Address. In poll after poll Americans demanded more evidence before
accepting a war on Iraq. Last night the president attempted to
provide that evidence. Instead he provided only a litany of what we
already knew: that Iraq has, at some point in the past, held
weapons of mass destruction. He provided no evidence that Iraq
currently holds those weapons or that it intends to use them. He
provided no evidence that waging war on Iraq would prevent
terrorists from acquiring Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction
(after all, they could remove the weapons from Iraq before a war
even begins). Indeed the president told Americans nothing showing
that his foreign policy would bring peace; he only illuminated the
path to war and increased peril.
What America needs now is not warmongering, tax cuts for the
rich, or an increased deficit. Our country deserves our
leaders’ attention to our current economic crisis. States and
local governments, the beloved children of the Republican Party,
are already struggling financially. They need more support from the
federal government, not rhetoric praising the private sector.
Middle and lower-class taxpayers need relief in the form of jobs,
government programs and tax cuts that help them, not the upper
crust of American society. And finally, America needs a foreign
policy that aims for peace – not one that targets war.
Orellana is the president of the Democratic Law Students
Association