Issue 8 State of the Union reaction feb,13,2013

Well lads and ladies...another uneventful State of the Union as only me and fellow political diehards were probably watching (aka THE NERDS). Obama as usual is a great speaker, but his message was cookie cutter at best. It felt like any one of his other speeches, with just information added in for place holding. Overall, the speech was the usual boring topics. Let’s break it down.

On climate change, he talked about cleaning up the planet....problem, who is going to do it and how. We need a plan, and an incentive for the non-climate change believers to join in. Basically, the individual or business has to be able to make money off of recycling. I’m not talking about cap and trade where a business buys tax credits from a so called cleaner business, but a legitimate market to use those recycled goods for profit, for both the individual and businesses. I personally do not believe in climate change, but I do want a clean planet.

As for the free trade deal between the United States and the European Union (it is an economic union between member countries in Europe for those who don’t know), it would mean a massive influx of jobs and business. Essentially, a free trade agreement between the U.S. and the E.U. will allow businesses new markets to make money by expanding their business over seas and giving consumers in America more and possibly cheaper choices for products and services.

On to the deficit. Obama failed on this one in my opinion. Yes we are taxing the rich more, but that will not solve Washington’s fiscal mess. Our government is bulky and needs streamlining to make it efficient. I.E. cutting programs that do not work, merging departments and agencies to eliminate overlap (ATF, DEA and the FBI ring a bell), and structural reforms like eliminating the retirement age from Social Security and making it so that you can retire at any time if and only if there is enough money in the account for a senior citizen to retire without ending up impoverished. Do we need to stop borrowing, yes. Do we need to tax people less, maybe, but that comes with a total transformation of the tax system.

As to the increase of the minimum wage....that will actually increase the number of poor people and/or decrease the number of full time workers. Why you ask. Simple, business pay their people based on affordability. In other words, the more they make, the more people they can higher...if you make hiring and keeping employees more expensive, and those companies (big and small) will need to cut costs to accommodate. It is wonderful that politicians want to use the minimum wage to help eliminate poverty, but it never has and never will. So rather than trying to bring people above the poverty line (currently around $20,000 a year) lets lower the poverty line by increasing the value of the American dollar (it is worth 63 cents less then it used to be) and thus an individuals buying power. If you can buy more with your dollar, then you are richer without having to make any extra cash. That is why so many people advocate the gold and silver standard to back our money's value. The only consequence is that it would be harder for people to pay off their financial debts, but congress makes the rules so it can force banks (one of the few times I believe government can interfere) to adjust how much a person owes in debt based on a dollars value. The higher the value, the less you owe, the lower the value the more you owe. Basically, changing the relationship between money and debt.

As to guns...yes let us have a universal background check. It will help to reduce crimes with legally bought guns (just not ones bought illegally). We do need to study psychology to aid in preventing people from getting guns who are unstable, but we also need to find ways for people to deal with stress (like from bullying) so that they do not take a gun to school. Basically, keep them in reality. Limiting the types of weapons bought and sold in the U.S. will do nothing as they are 100% un-enforceable especially with the advent of 3D printing where you can build a gun in the comfort of your own home. What does need to be done is to federalize all gun crimes. Basically the States make the law and then the Federal government carries out a harsh punishment as they deem appropriate. This also aids in preventing States with a gun culture (where they love their guns) from being abused by a one size fits all policy and thus keeps the laws catered toward their specific State populations and culture.

Overall a nice speech, with no real specifics on how to solve the problems America is facing. Sure the part on fixing America's roads and bridges is important, especially for bringing business back, but as we have the most complex and highest business tax in the world, fixing the American infrastructure will not matter much until you make it cheap to own and operate a business in the U.S.. The president did talk about immigration reform and gave credit to both parties in congress who were working on it, so it just remains to be seen if he will keep his promise and sign it into law if it does not meet his standards. Good luck Mr. President, I may not agree with your overall solutions, but you have a rough road ahead.

The Republican reaction was on the other hand was nice...and that is all it really was. It had a nice immigrant story, and tried to contrast the democratic vision of America with the republican one. Was the contrast successful, yes, but no specifics. It was designed to appeal to people who share republican values (even if they themselves are not republican). The Republican Party is rebranding and this reaction speech was basically the first step.