国情咨文中的民生问题？
2023-02-09 08:38阅读：
Biden lives in one world and the one the rest of America
lives in another
President Biden's State of the Union address on Tuesday was a
cringe-worthy reminder of his failed worldview
Jason Chaffetz
The moment when President Joe Biden invited Ukrainian Ambassador
Oksana Markarova to stand up so 'we can look at you,' during his
otherwise forgettable State of the Union speech on Tuesday night
was a cringe-worthy reminder of just how old school this president
is. The speech offered no exciting new policy initiatives – just a
doubling down on the same policies that have failed us for
generations.
Committing to yet another forever war, Biden assured Markarova
that, 'We are gonna stand with you [meaning Ukraine], a
s long as it takes.' The tired tropes and old-fashioned ideas laced
through the speech highlighted the disconnect between Biden’s world
and the one the rest of America lives in.
When the boldest and newest ideas Biden can offer are plans to help
fast food employees escape non-compete agreements and a proposal to
eliminate resort fees at hotels, that signals a president who is
out of touch with the concerns that keep Americans up at
night.
Does the president have a plan to curb inflation? Nobody
seems to know, and he didn’t tell us. Perhaps he forgot,
but it is one of our biggest problems.
What Biden simply forgot to talk about were kitchen table issues.
He had no plan for keeping the social safety net solvent, providing
a cheap and abundant energy supply, or addressing the growth of
violent crime and drug trafficking.
Even as he decried the fictional lawmakers who want to 'sunset'
Social Security and Medicare, he offered no solutions for
stabilizing those programs in the face of demographic and budgetary
pressures that are projected to bankrupt them.
When Republicans rightly objected to his mischaracterization of
their opposition to the irresponsible way these programs have been
structured, he used a sleight of hand to claim they actually
objected to making any changes to the programs. There is a big
difference between wanting to sunset a program and wanting to
repair it in ways that make it sustainable in the long-term. Biden
offered no such solutions.
Even as other nations reap the consequences of their premature
reliance on renewable energy, Biden entertained the fantasy that
oil and gas could be abandoned in a decade as peels of laughter
rang out. In all his talk of clean energy, he forgot to
offer any ideas for producing cheap, reliable energy in a world
where his policies are disincentivizing production – a fact he
acknowledged.
Despite his assurances that 'I get it,' it was clear that he really
doesn’t. The laughter and nervous chuckles at his naïve plan to end
the use of fossil fuels only reinforced the growing suspicion that
this president really doesn’t understand. Oil and gas products
don’t just power our cars, they are the backbone of global
productivity without which a modern standard of living is
impossible.
Biden also forgot to talk about the Border Patrol or to offer
solutions to protect us from the criminal element mixed in among
the tired masses crossing our borders every day. He had no
solutions for addressing our Fentanyl crisis. He forgot to
acknowledge our military and first responders, without whom we have
no protection from the worst elements of society.
At one point, he suggested the only way to secure the border is
through comprehensive immigration reform. No wonder we have a
problem with fentanyl - he doesn’t understand how it gets here.
On issue after issue, the president punted. He offered no solutions
to avert a potential conflict with China over Taiwan, no solution
to detect and prevent fraud after north of $100 billion in Covid
relief funds were stolen. Even as he acknowledged rampant
fraud, he called for more federal spending.
The speech was short on solutions, but long on new spending
proposals. If more spending correlated to more solutions, the last
four years should have done the trick. The speech will be quickly
forgotten as the Biden Administration repeats the same mistakes
that have failed us for generations.
'American Requiem' is streaming now.
