SOTU Speak

Calling the bank bailouts as "popular as a root canal" is an insult to root canals.


I agree with him on how to deal with the aftermath of the bank bailouts, i.e., getting little fees from all the banks that haven't paid everything back yet. Stabilizing the economy he hasn't done.


As the the 2 million who'd have jobs if he hadn't done what he did, I don't know. A lot of the Recovery Act (AKA the Stimulus Bill) was for temporary programs that injected a small amount of capital into select markets, then stopped. Cash for Clunkers, First-time home buyers credits, etc. Short-term spikes do not a recovery make.


Infrastructure. How lovely. About damn time.


It's nice he's talking about how wages have gone down or stayed flat while everything else keeps going up.


Nuclear power plants. "Safe, clean nuclear power." What planet is this guy living on? Clean means no waste. Nuclear power plants that don't generate waste are fast breeder plants that recycle the plutonium, and use molten sodium as a coolant. Molten sodium, on contact with air or water, explodes violently. Once the reactor is done giving up energy, or is no longer maintainable due to age and/or simple decay, the fuel is still viable, still radioactive as hell, still the most poisonous substance on the face of the earth. I read somewhere back in the seventies (when we were all afraid of being bombed off the face of the planet) that a grapefruit-sized ball of plutonium had enough radiation in it to kill everyone on the planet if they would just stand close to it for a few minutes.


"Offshore areas for oil and gas exploration." Who is this, Sarah Palin? Jeebus....


More exports would be good, yes. Don't we have to make things to export them?


I agree with him on education, as far as it goes. I'd love to know how, for example, the State University system in California got to the point where it costs $10,000 per semester for tuition. How is that affordable education for anyone who qualifies? Then again, the private prison industry is the fastest growing business in California.

While he states that "a high-school diploma no longer guarantees a good job," and that's true, why is that true? I don't know many manufacturing line work jobs that require a Bachelor's Degree. An MBA in riveting? Perhaps if more of our manufacturing base hadn't been outsourced to other countries, and high schools still did a good job educating people, this wouldn't be an issue. Oh, yeah, and then there's the unions. Moribund, antiquated, still very necessary unions.


"I do not accept second place for the United States of America."


This, apparently, includes being first in highest cost of health care on the planet. Or spending six times on the military what our next rival down the line (China) does.

Keep waving the flag, that's all you're good for, apparently.