VIEW FROM WEST DAVENPORT
What Was Objectionable
In State Of Union Speech?
By MIKE ZAGATA • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
This past week we had an opportunity to observe our President highlight his accomplishments and lay out his agenda for next year. Every president does this annually in the State of the Union Address. As is almost always the case, depending on party affiliation, there will be things covered that draw applause and some that draw frowns – and once in a while both sides are supportive.
I watched the address and here’s what I heard the President claim to have done for us: increase wages more for the lower half of wage earners than for the upper tier; reduce unemployment, especially for minorities, to historic lows; stimulate a blue-collar boom; create “Opportunity Zones” in our economically depressed cities (we could use one); re-negotiate trade deals with Mexico, Canada and China that will benefit American workers, including farmers; take steps to assure we are an “inclusive” society; and defend our borders.
These actions should not come as a surprise because they were part of the promises he made while campaigning. When was the last time a candidate you supported actually kept those campaign promises?
The latter half of the Address was devoted to listing the actions he was committed to take, with the support of Congress, on our behalf in the coming year. The list included things normally supported by Republicans and things normally supported by Democrats.
Some of those things are: Education Freedom Scholarships & Opportunities Act (freedom for students in impoverished school districts to choose the best school); ensure that every high school offers vocational and technical education; permanent funding for historically black colleges and universities; health coverage for people with pre-existing conditions; reduce the cost, not the quality, of healthcare and prescription drugs; ensure that Medicare benefits are secured for our senior citizens and not allowed to be depleted by providing those benefits to illegal aliens; complete the wall along our southern border; further curb the opioid epidemic; increase funding for neo-natal research; end late-term abortion; provide paid family leave via the “Working Families Act”; join the international initiative to plant one trillion trees to restore forests and combat climate change; re-build our infrastructure; provide high-speed internet to rural America; increase support for law enforcement, afford families who lose a loved one due to a criminal protected by a “sanctuary city” the right to sue that city; revise our out-dated immigration laws; defend religious freedom and the second amendment; plant our flag on Mars with the help of the newly created “Space Force”; negotiate peace talks between Israel and Palestine; end the war in Afghanistan; invite Iran to the peace-talks table; and fight terrorism.
It seemed to me the President had addressed traditional Republican-oriented programs and offered several olive branches to the Democrats. In response, the Democratic Speaker of the House publically tore up the speech reflecting her disdain for its contents and the President.
How much longer are those of us being impacted by this obvious hatred by those Democrats going to allow it to continue? We are all, Democrats and Republicans alike, suffering as a result of this acrimony and it needs to stop. Grow up and work together on behalf of the American people who elected you.