President Barack Obama - Term 1 and 2 Thread

[Boomchild]

It's all fun and games, til someone shows up to work with a loaded firearm.

The problem is no one shows up at work with a loaded firearm at the White House or the Capitol.

[RocknRoll]

I can't believe this hasn't been posted here yet. This guy makes some great points right in front of Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast. It's definitely worth listening all the way through. I'm gonna buy this guys book...he will definitely be around awhile!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFb6NU1g ... r_embedded

[Memorex]

Logic will never win in the political world. Those days are long gone.

[Boomchild]

I can't believe this hasn't been posted here yet. This guy makes some great points right in front of Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast. It's definitely worth listening all the way through. I'm gonna buy this guys book...he will definitely be around awhile!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFb6NU1g ... r_embedded

Especially now that information coming out on a regular basis about B.O.'s "Affordable Health Care Act" is looking to be not so "affordable".

[Memorex]

I can't believe this hasn't been posted here yet. This guy makes some great points right in front of Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast. It's definitely worth listening all the way through. I'm gonna buy this guys book...he will definitely be around awhile!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFb6NU1g ... r_embedded

Especially now that information coming out on a regular basis about B.O.'s "Affordable Health Care Act" is looking to be not so "affordable".

I seriously doubt anyone ever thought it would be affordable. There has never been one shred of evidence that the government can do anything in an affordable and efficient manner and the numbers of this thing just never added up.

But they are not intended to. This is a stepping stone to what they really want, a single-payer system. They have no intention of this being affordable and they do not want it to be. If this worked, then they might not get to the next step. By this being the disaster that it will be, they can then come back and say, "uh, oh well, uh, to fix this we need everyone paying into one system...."

I never understand why there are arguments about the obvious. It's weird to me.

[Boomchild]

I seriously doubt anyone ever thought it would be affordable. There has never been one shred of evidence that the government can do anything in an affordable and efficient manner and the numbers of this thing just never added up.

But they are not intended to. This is a stepping stone to what they really want, a single-payer system. They have no intention of this being affordable and they do not want it to be. If this worked, then they might not get to the next step. By this being the disaster that it will be, they can then come back and say, "uh, oh well, uh, to fix this we need everyone paying into one system...."

I never understand why there are arguments about the obvious. It's weird to me.

Well to me it seems there are people that did or still do. People have said that because there will be more people with coverage it will lower the overall cost for everyone. That and that they feel it will reduce the number legal and illegal citizens going to the emergency room for non emergency treatment an then never paying a dime for it. Not to mention that people keep electing and re-electing people that come up with this shit.

[Memorex]

I seriously doubt anyone ever thought it would be affordable. There has never been one shred of evidence that the government can do anything in an affordable and efficient manner and the numbers of this thing just never added up.

But they are not intended to. This is a stepping stone to what they really want, a single-payer system. They have no intention of this being affordable and they do not want it to be. If this worked, then they might not get to the next step. By this being the disaster that it will be, they can then come back and say, "uh, oh well, uh, to fix this we need everyone paying into one system...."

I never understand why there are arguments about the obvious. It's weird to me.

Well to me it seems there are people that did or still do. People have said that because there will be more people with coverage it will lower the overall cost for everyone. That and that they feel it will reduce the number legal and illegal citizens going to the emergency room for non emergency treatment an then never paying a dime for it. Not to mention that people keep electing and re-electing people that come up with this shit.

People can say whatever, but if they have a half-working brain they must know reality. Maybe I am wrong. I mean, I know there are a lot of beliefs I have where I "think" I know what I am talking about, but can admit when there are other arguments. But this one, seems like everyone should just see and know.

[Boomchild]

People can say whatever, but if they have a half-working brain they must know reality. Maybe I am wrong. I mean, I know there are a lot of beliefs I have where I "think" I know what I am talking about, but can admit when there are other arguments. But this one, seems like everyone should just see and know.

I see what you are saying. I guess it maybe that some people either believe it will work the way it is presented because they are not informed and don't pay attention to the details. Then there is the segment that think it's the opposition blowing smoke. Obviously there are people that feel having government more in involved and controlling things does work. Their voting for it.

[Memorex]

65,376,373 Guns Bought Since Obama Took Office...

75% of those by Homeland Security.

[The Sushi Hunter]

Since taking office in 2009, food stamp rolls under President Barack Obama have risen to more than 47 million people in America, exceeding the population of Spain.

“Now is the time to act boldly and wisely – to not only revive this economy, but to build a new foundation for lasting prosperity,” said Obama during his first joint session address to Congress on Feb. 24, 2009.

Since then, the number of participants enrolled in food stamps, known as the Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Program (SNAP), has risen substantially.

When Obama entered office in January 2009 there were 31,939,110 Americans receiving food stamps. As of November 2012—the most recent data available—there were 47,692,896 Americans enrolled, an increase of 49.3 percent.

According to the 2011 census, Spain had a population of 46,815,916.

And remember, the individuals who are on food stamps....their vote counts just as much as everyone's who works hard for a living.

[slucero]

Since taking office in 2009, food stamp rolls under President Barack Obama have risen to more than 47 million people in America, exceeding the population of Spain.

“Now is the time to act boldly and wisely – to not only revive this economy, but to build a new foundation for lasting prosperity,” said Obama during his first joint session address to Congress on Feb. 24, 2009.

Since then, the number of participants enrolled in food stamps, known as the Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Program (SNAP), has risen substantially.

When Obama entered office in January 2009 there were 31,939,110 Americans receiving food stamps. As of November 2012—the most recent data available—there were 47,692,896 Americans enrolled, an increase of 49.3 percent.

According to the 2011 census, Spain had a population of 46,815,916.

And remember, the individuals who are on food stamps....their vote counts just as much as everyone's who works hard for a living.

...which is their Constitutionally protected right.


Either we support Liberty and Freedom for all, or we are no better than those we bitch about who are chipping away at our Liberty and Freedom.

[hoagiepete]

And now that voters receiving more FROM the government than they pay in outnumber the voters actually paying for the others handouts/benefits/whatever....we're doomed. This was right out of the D playbook and they may have won. Hand out enough stuff and they'll vote for you. Once you tip the scales on government dependency, the D's win and productive citizens lose. And if you don't believe they really want to keep the scales tipped...you are smoking something stronger than what is now legal in some states.

The desire to succeed will wane and things will snowball downhill.

[slucero]

And now that voters receiving more FROM the government than they pay in outnumber the voters actually paying for the others handouts/benefits/whatever....we're doomed. This was right out of the D playbook and they may have won. Hand out enough stuff and they'll vote for you. Once you tip the scales on government dependency, the D's win and productive citizens lose. And if you don't believe they really want to keep the scales tipped...you are smoking something stronger than what is now legal in some states.

The desire to succeed will wane and things will snowball downhill.

If you blame one party, you'd better blame both... since most of the heavy deficit spending started in 1973... when Nixon severed the final link between $USD and gold... and since 1973 there have been 5 Republican and 3 Democratic presidents... so BOTH parties have been borrowing money, and those "scales have been tipped"... for a looooooong time..






Take a look at the party's in power... If ya wanna blame the Dems.. you gotta blame the Reps for not changing the spending when they had a chance...

[conversationpc]

Panicked Biden Interrupts State Of The Union To Ask If Erections Can Ever Be Medical Emergency


WASHINGTON—Claiming that he had a “huge honking woody that just won’t quit,” Vice President Joe Biden interrupted President Barack Obama during the State of the Union tonight, asking the commander-in-chief in a frightened voice if erections exceeding three days required emergency medical attention. “Hey, Barry, sorry to interrupt your speech, man—but is 72 hours too long for a raging boner?” said the perspiring, agitated Biden, nervously motioning to the erection. “I wasn’t complaining for the first 36 hours—and neither was she-—but this monster is gonna rip my pants at the seams. It hurts, bud. I’m in pecker purgatory over here. Should we call somebody?”At press time, Biden told Speaker of the House John Boehner that he needed to “get his bronco some shut-eye” so it could be “rodeo-ready” by the time “[wife] Jill gets home from the gym tomorrow.”

http://www.theonion.com/articles/panick ... ne:default

[Rick]

Panicked Biden Interrupts State Of The Union To Ask If Erections Can Ever Be Medical Emergency


WASHINGTON—Claiming that he had a “huge honking woody that just won’t quit,” Vice President Joe Biden interrupted President Barack Obama during the State of the Union tonight, asking the commander-in-chief in a frightened voice if erections exceeding three days required emergency medical attention. “Hey, Barry, sorry to interrupt your speech, man—but is 72 hours too long for a raging boner?” said the perspiring, agitated Biden, nervously motioning to the erection. “I wasn’t complaining for the first 36 hours—and neither was she-—but this monster is gonna rip my pants at the seams. It hurts, bud. I’m in pecker purgatory over here. Should we call somebody?”At press time, Biden told Speaker of the House John Boehner that he needed to “get his bronco some shut-eye” so it could be “rodeo-ready” by the time “[wife] Jill gets home from the gym tomorrow.”

http://www.theonion.com/articles/panick ... ne:default

[slucero]

LMAO

[iceberg]

if you look around, before the gun panic set in, the obama admin was buying .40 cal bullets in record #'s. why?

we're not supposed to ask. but it was done through several agencies who had no business buying bullets.

but if you like obama, you simply don't care.

now suddenly, "military style" guns are in question.

that is such an open book.

you can't judge a person off how they look or you get railed. but you can judge a gun? is the function of an AR15 .223 semi automatic really that different than a rugar 10/22?

if you can't answer that question, stop making fucking gun laws. you can't regulate what you don't understand.

[slucero]

Hey I stumbled across the unedited version of the State of The Union Address:

Full text: Original State of the Union Address

Prepared text of President Obama's State of the Union Address:

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, fellow citizens:

Fifty-one years ago, John F. Kennedy declared to this Chamber that "the Constitution makes us not rivals for power but partners for progress…It is my task," he said, "to report the State of the Union – to improve it is the task of us all."

Tonight, thanks to the indifference of the American people, there is much progress to report. After a decade of grinding war, our brave men and women in uniform are coming home. After years of grueling recession, our businesses have created a net of 400,000 fewer jobs today (if you count government jobs) than when I took office in January 2009. To be clear, that time frame includes the worst job losses which took place in 2009. Even though they occurred on my watch, we all know they were the result of Bush policies.

With U.S. auto manufacturers making less domestically than abroad, we buy more American cars than we have in five years, which explains why we buy less foreign oil than we have in twenty. Our housing market is healing because the banks are artificially subsidizing the housing market by not foreclosing on roughly 2 million homes, our stock market is rebounding nominally but not fundamentally, largely due to the trillions of Federal Reserve money being funneled through banks to shore up their balance sheets, which is then used by banks trading desks to speculate on Wall Street via logarithmic computer trading that now represents 80% of all trades. Oh yea, and consumers, patients, and homeowners enjoy stronger protections than ever before.

Together, we have cleared away the rubble of crisis but have not fixed what caused it, or punished those that created it in the first place, and can say with renewed confidence that the state of our union is stronger than ever, because nothing has changed.
But we gather here knowing that there are millions of Americans whose hard work and dedication have not yet been rewarded. Our economy is adding jobs – but too many people still can't find full-time employment. Corporate profits have rocketed to all-time highs, fueled by layoffs (firings), outsourcing and increased worker productivity – but for more than a decade, wages and incomes have barely budged in comparison to the rapid debasement of our currency and real rise in consumer prices.

It is our generation's task, then, to reignite the true engine of America's economic growth – a rising, thriving middle class.

It is our unfinished task to restore the basic bargain that built this country – the idea that if you work hard and meet your responsibilities; you can get ahead, no matter where you come from, what you look like, or who you love. But we aren’t gonna make government smaller.

It is our unfinished task to make sure that all of you still believe that this government works on behalf of the many, and not just the few; that it encourages free enterprise, rewards individual initiative, and opens the doors of opportunity to every child across this great nation.

The American people are growing to expect government to solve every problem. They expect those of us in this chamber to lie on every issue. But they do not expect us to put the government's interests before special interests and lobbyists, party, the government ,oh.. and The People. They don’t expect us to forge reasonable compromise where we can. For they know that America moves forward only when Washington does nothing; and that the responsibility of improving this union has been lost to us all.

Our work must begin by making some basic decisions about our budget – decisions that will have a huge impact on the strength of our recovery.

Over the last few years, both parties have worked together to reduce the deficit by more than $2.5 trillion over 10 years– mostly through spending cuts, but also by raising tax rates on the wealthiest 1 % of Americans immediately. As a result, we are more than halfway towards the goal of taxing more now, and spending less later.

Now we need to finish the job of destroying our country. And the question is, how?

In 2011, Congress passed a law that I signed, saying that if both parties couldn't agree on a plan to reach our deficit goal, about a trillion dollars' worth of budget cuts would automatically go into effect this year. We all knew these sudden, harsh, arbitrary cuts would jeopardize our military readiness. They'd devastate priorities like education, energy, and medical research. They would certainly slow our recovery, and cost us hundreds of thousands of jobs. But we had to do something then, to make you all think we were actually doing something then. That's why Democrats, Republicans, business leaders, and economists are now saying that these cuts, known here in Washington as "the sequester," are a really bad idea. (wink)

Now, some in this Congress have proposed preventing only the defense cuts by making even bigger cuts to things like education and job training; Medicare and Social Security benefits.

I need you to believe that this idea is even worse. Yes it’s true, the biggest driver of our long-term debt is the rising cost of health care for an aging population. And those of us who care deeply about programs like Medicare must embrace the need for reforms – otherwise, our retirement programs will crowd out the taxes I want to pass for Congress..er… (cough) for our children, and jeopardize the promise of a secure retirement for future generations.

But we can't ask senior citizens and working families to shoulder the entire burden of deficit reduction while asking nothing more from the wealthiest and most powerful. We won't grow the middle class simply by shifting the cost of health care or college onto families that are already struggling, or by forcing communities to lay off more teachers, cops, and firefighters. Most Americans – Democrats, Republicans, and Independents – understand that we can't just cut our way to prosperity, because that just makes too much sense… and more importantly, most members of Congress would lose their jobs. They know that broad-based economic growth requires a balanced approach to deficit reduction, with spending cuts and revenue cuts, and with everybody doing their fair share. But that's not the approach I offer tonight.

On Medicare, I'm prepared to enact reforms that will achieve the same amount of health care savings by the beginning of the next decade as the reforms proposed by the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles commission. Already, we’ve told you that the Affordable Care Act is helping to slow the growth of health care costs, even though the CBO has concluded that the Affordable Care Act will ultimately increase health care costs, which was the original intent, since what we really want is a single payer system, controlled by the government of course. The reforms I'm proposing won’t go much further. We say we’ll reduce taxpayer subsidies to prescription drug companies and ask more from the wealthiest seniors, but who am I kidding, heck we mean all of them. We'll say we’ll bring down costs by changing the way our government pays for Medicare, because our medical bills shouldn't be based on the number of tests ordered or days spent in the hospital – they should be based on the quality of care that our seniors receive, but that’s a total smokescreen. And I am open to additional reforms from both parties, so long as they don't violate the ultimate goal, a single payer healthcare system. Our government shouldn't make promises we cannot lie our way out of – but we must keep the lies we've already made.

To hit the rest of our deficit reduction target, we should do what leaders in both parties have already suggested for the last 15 years, and save a couple trillion dollars by getting rid of tax loopholes and deductions for the well-off and well-connected. After all, why would we choose to make deeper cuts to education and Medicare just to protect special interest tax breaks? How is that fair? How does that promote growth?

Now is our best chance for bipartisan, comprehensive tax reform that encourages job creation, dramatically shrinks the IRS from its current size of over 100,000 employees, and helps bring down the deficit by increasing tax revenues. The American people deserve a tax code that helps small businesses spend less time filling out complicated forms, and more time expanding and hiring; a tax code that ensures billionaires with high-powered accountants can't pay a lower rate than their hard-working secretaries; a tax code that lowers incentives to move jobs overseas, and lowers tax rates for businesses and manufacturers that create jobs right here in America, but doesn’t decrease government tax revenues. That's what tax reform can deliver. That's what we can do together.

I realize that tax reform and entitlement reform won't be easy. The politics won’t be hard for either side. The People will get 100 percent of what we want. The alternative will cost us jobs, hurt our economy, and visit hardship on millions of hardworking Americans. So let's pretend to set party interests aside, and work to pass a budget, something that has never happened during my Presidency, that replaces cuts to the deficit and national debt with taxes. And let's do it without the brinksmanship that stresses consumers and scares off investors. The greatest nation on Earth cannot keep conducting its business by drifting from one intentionally manufactured crisis to the next. Let's agree, right here, right now, to pretend to keep the people's government open, pay our bills on time, and always uphold the full faith and credit of the United States of America. The American people have worked too hard, for too long, rebuilding from one crisis to finally realize that their elected officials incompetence and corruption has been the cause all along.

This is why I want the spending ceiling to be permanently unlimited, because we don’t want you to have to think about it.
Now, most of us in Congress and the White House agree that agreeing to agree on having a plan to reduce the deficit must be part of our agenda of deception. But let's be clear: deficit reduction alone is not an economic plan that works for a government that believes in ever growing spending. A growing economy that creates good, middle-class jobs – that must be the North Star that guides our efforts, but deficit reduction is not part of it.

Every day, in order to distract ourselves from the real problems, we should ask ourselves three questions as a nation: How do we attract more jobs to our shores? How do we equip our people with the skills needed to do those jobs? And how do we make sure that hard work leads to a decent living?

A year and a half ago, I put forward an American Jobs Act that independent economists said would create more than one million new jobs. I thank the last Congress for passing some of that agenda, and I urge this Congress to pass the rest. Tonight, I'll lay out additional proposals that aren’t fully paid for and fully consistent with the budget framework both parties agreed to just 18 months ago. Let me repeat – everything I'm proposing tonight should increase our deficit. It's a bigger government we need, a government that sets priorities and taxes to try and achieve broad-based growth.

Our first priority is making America a magnet for new jobs and manufacturing.

After shedding jobs for more than 10 years, our manufacturers have added very few jobs over the past three. Caterpillar is bringing jobs back from Japan. Ford is bringing jobs back from Mexico. After locating plants in other countries like China, Intel is opening its most advanced plant right here at home. And this year, Apple will start making Macs in America again. But make no mistake; we’re still horribly too expensive for manufacturing in the U.S.A. We have to drastically lower wages in this country to compete with Asia.

There are things we can do, right now, to accelerate this trend. Last year, we created our first manufacturing innovation institute in Youngstown, Ohio. A once-shuttered warehouse is now a state-of-the art lab where 2 or 3 workers are mastering the 3D printing that has the potential to revolutionize the way we make almost everything. There's no reason this can't happen in other towns. So tonight, I'm announcing the launch of three more of these manufacturing hubs, where businesses will partner and suck money out of the Departments of Defense and Energy to turn regions left behind by globalization into pretend global centers of high-tech jobs. And I ask this Congress to help create and legislate spending to pay for a network of fifteen of these hubs that in no way guarantee that the next revolution in manufacturing is Made in America.

If we want to make the best products, we also have to invest in the best ideas. Every dollar we invested to map the human genome returned $140 to our economy, even though we can find it. Today, our scientists are mapping the human brain to unlock the answers to Alzheimer's; developing drugs to regenerate damaged organs; devising new material to make batteries ten times more powerful. Now is not the time to gut these non-job-creating taxes in science and innovation. Now is the time to reach a level of research and development not seen since the height of the Space Race. And today, no area holds more promise for additional taxation than our subsidies in American energy.

After years of waiting for the U.S. energy oligarchy to buy up the alternative energy industry, we are finally poised to control our own energy future. We produce more oil at home than we have in 15 years. We have doubled the distance our cars will go on a gallon of gas, and the amount of renewable energy we generate from sources like wind and solar – with tens of thousands of good, American jobs to show for it. We produce more natural gas than ever before – and nearly everyone's energy bill is lower because of it. And over the last four years, our emissions of the dangerous carbon pollution that threatens our planet have actually fallen.

But I need you to believe that, for the sake of our children and our future and most importantly, new taxes, that we must do more to combat climate change. Yes, it's true that no single event makes a trend. But the fact is, the 12 hottest years on record have all come in the last 15. Heat waves, droughts, wildfires, and floods – all are now more frequent and intense because we are making sure you are told so. We can choose to believe the truth, that Superstorm Sandy, and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen were all just a freak coincidence. Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of misleading and inaccurate science – and act before it's too late.

The good news is, the government and special interests can make meaningful profit on this issue while driving strong economic growth. I urge this Congress to pursue a bipartisan, market-based solution to climate change, like the one John McCain and Joe Lieberman worked on together a few years ago. But if Congress won't act soon to create this market, I will. I will direct my Cabinet to come up with executive actions we can take, now and in the future, to reduce pollution, prepare our communities for the consequences of climate change, and speed the transition to more sustainable sources of energy and those markets.

Four years ago, other countries dominated the clean energy market and the jobs that came with it. We've begun to change that. Last year, wind energy, which only accounts for 2.3 percent of total U.S. electrical supply, added nearly half of all new power capacity in America. So it really didn’t add much, but that’s the best I can say. Anyways.. let's generate even more. Solar energy gets cheaper by the year – so let's drive costs down even further. As long as countries like China keep going all-in on clean energy, so must we continue to subsidize the creation of companies like Solyndra that wind up moving their manufacturing plants to China.

In the meantime, the natural gas boom has led to cleaner power and greater energy independence. That's why my Administration will keep cutting red tape and speeding up new oil and gas permits. But I also want to work with this Congress to encourage the research and technology that helps natural gas burn even cleaner and protects our air and water.

Indeed, much of our new-found energy is drawn from lands and waters that we, the public, own together. So tonight, I propose new taxes that we use to fund an Energy Security Trust that will drive new research and technology to shift our cars and trucks off oil for good. If a non-partisan coalition of CEOs and retired generals and admirals can get behind this idea, then so can we. Let's take their advice and free our families and businesses from the painful spikes in gas prices we've put up with for far too long. I'm also issuing a new goal for America: let's cut in half the energy wasted by our homes and businesses over the next twenty years. The states with the best ideas to create jobs and lower energy bills by constructing more efficient buildings will receive federal support to help make it happen.

America's energy sector is just one part of an aging infrastructure badly in need of repair. Ask any CEO where they'd rather locate and hire: a country with deteriorating roads and bridges, or one with high-speed rail and internet; high-tech schools and self-healing power grids. The CEO of Siemens America – a company that brought hundreds of new jobs to North Carolina – has said that if we upgrade our infrastructure, they'll bring even more jobs. And I know that you want these job-creating projects in your districts. I've seen you all at the ribbon-cuttings.
Tonight, I propose a "Tax&Fix-It-First" program to put people to work as soon as possible on our most urgent repairs, like the nearly 70,000 structurally deficient bridges across the country. And to make sure taxpayers don't shoulder the whole burden, I'm also proposing a Partnership to Rebuild America that attracts private capital to upgrade what our businesses need most: modern ports to move our goods; modern pipelines to withstand a storm; modern schools worthy of our children. Let's prove that there is no better place to do business than the United States of America. And let's start right away.

Part of our rebuilding effort must also involve our housing sector. Today, even though our housing market is no where near finally healing from the collapse of 2007, home prices are rising at the fastest pace in six years, with home purchases are up nearly 50 percent, and construction is expanding again.

But even with mortgage rates near a 50-year low, too many families with solid credit who want to buy a home are being rejected. Too many families who have never missed a payment and want to refinance are being told no. Why? Because The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act imposed such heaving credit qualification restrictions on the banks that it’s holding our entire economy back, and we need to fix it. Even though this will do nothing to change things, right now, there's a bill in this Congress that would give every responsible homeowner in America the chance to save $3,000 a year by refinancing at today's rates. Democrats and Republicans have supported it before. What are we waiting for? Take a vote, and send me that bill. Right now, overlapping regulations keep responsible young families from buying their first home. What's holding us back? Let's streamline the process, and help our economy grow.

These initiatives in manufacturing, energy, infrastructure, and housing will appear to help entrepreneurs and small business owners expand and create new jobs. But none of it will matter because we’ve also sold the perception that our citizens don’t have the skills and training to fill those jobs.

Study after study shows that the sooner a child begins learning, the better he or she does down the road. But today, fewer than 3 in 10 four year-olds are enrolled in a high-quality preschool program. Most middle-class parents can't afford a few hundred bucks a week for private preschool. And for poor kids who need help the most, this lack of access to preschool education can shadow them for the rest of their lives.
Tonight, I propose working with states to make high-quality preschool available to every child in America. Every dollar we invest in high-quality early education can save more than seven dollars later on – by boosting graduation rates, reducing teen pregnancy, even reducing violent crime. In states that make it a priority to educate our youngest children, like Georgia or Oklahoma, studies show students grow up more likely to read and do math at grade level, graduate high school, hold a job, and form more stable families of their own. So let's do what works, and make sure none of our children start the race of life already behind. Let's give our kids that chance. Awww who am I kidding.. they’re fucked.

Let's also make sure that a high school diploma puts our kids on a path to a good job. Right now, countries like Germany focus on graduating their high school students with the equivalent of a technical degree from one of our community colleges, so that they're ready for a job. At schools like P-Tech in Brooklyn, collaboration between New York Public Schools, the City University of New York, and IBM, students will graduate with a high school diploma and an associate degree in computers or engineering.

We need to give every American student opportunities like this. Four years ago, we started Race to the Top – a competition that convinced almost every state to develop smarter curricula and higher standards, for about 1 percent of what we spend on education each year. Tonight, I'm announcing a new challenge to redesign America's high schools so they better equip graduates for the demands of a high-tech economy. We'll reward schools that develop new partnerships with colleges and employers, and create classes that focus on science, technology, engineering, and math – the skills today's employers are looking for to fill jobs right now and in the future.
Now, even with better high schools, most young people will need some higher education. It's a simple fact: the more education you have, the more likely you are to have a job and work your way into the middle class. But today, skyrocketing costs price way too many young people out of a higher education, or saddles them with unsustainable debt.

Through tax credits, grants, and better loans, we have made college more affordable for millions of students and families over the last few years. But taxpayers cannot continue to subsidize the soaring cost of higher education. Colleges must do their part to keep costs down, and it's our job to make sure they do. Tonight, I ask Congress to change the Higher Education Act, so that affordability and value are included in determining which colleges receive certain types of federal aid. And tomorrow, my Administration will release a new "College Scorecard" that parents and students can use to compare schools based on a simple criteria: where you can get the most bang for your educational buck.

To grow our middle class, our citizens must have access to the education and training that today's jobs require. But we also have to make sure that America remains a place where everyone who's willing to work hard has the chance to get ahead.

Our economy is stronger when we harness the lower cost talents of immigrants. And right now, leaders from the business, labor, law enforcement, and faith communities all agree that the time has come to pass comprehensive immigration reform, for the 9th time in the last 50 years.

Real reform means strong border security, and we can build on the progress my Administration has already made – putting more boots on the southern border than at any time in our history, and reducing illegal crossings to their lowest levels in 40 years.

Real reform means establishing a responsible pathway to earned citizenship – a path that includes passing a background check, paying taxes and a meaningful penalty, learning English, and going to the back of the line behind the folks trying to come here legally.

And real reform means fixing the legal immigration system to cut waiting periods, reduce bureaucracy, and attract the highly-skilled entrepreneurs and engineers that will help create jobs and grow our economy.

In other words, we know what needs to be done. As we speak, bipartisan groups in both chambers are working diligently to draft a bill, and I applaud their efforts. Now let's get this done. Send me a comprehensive immigration reform bill in the next few months, and I will sign it right away.

But we can't stop there. We know our economy is stronger when our wives, mothers, and daughters can live their lives free from discrimination in the workplace, and free from the fear of domestic violence. Today, the Senate passed the Violence Against Women Act that Joe Biden originally wrote almost 20 years ago. I urge the House to do the same. And I ask this Congress to declare that women should earn a living equal to their efforts, and finally pass the Paycheck Fairness Act this year.

We know our economy is stronger when we reward an honest day's work with honest wages. But today, a full-time worker making the minimum wage earns $14,500 a year. Even with the tax relief we've put in place, a family with two kids that earns the minimum wage still lives below the poverty line. That's wrong. That's why, since the last time this Congress raised the minimum wage, nineteen states have chosen to bump theirs even higher.

Tonight, let's declare that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty, and instead of stopping the debasement of our currency that is inflating our cost of living, let’s instead, even though it will likely cost many their jobs, raise the federal minimum wage to $9.00 an hour. This single step would raise the incomes of millions of working. It could mean the difference between groceries or the food bank; rent or eviction; scraping by or finally getting ahead. For businesses across the country, it would mean customers with more money in their pockets. In fact, working folks shouldn't have to wait year after year for the minimum wage to go up while CEO pay has never been higher. So here's an idea that Governor Romney and I actually agreed on last year: let's tie the minimum wage to the cost of living, so that it finally becomes a wage you can live on.

Tonight, let's also recognize that there are communities in this country where no matter how hard you work, it's virtually impossible to get ahead. Factory towns decimated from years of plants packing up. Inescapable pockets of poverty, urban and rural, where young adults are still fighting for their first job. America is not a place where chance of birth or circumstance should decide our destiny. And that is why we need to build new ladders of opportunity into the middle class for all who are willing to climb them.

Let's offer incentives to companies that hire Americans who've got what it takes to fill that job opening, but have been out of work so long that no one will give them a chance, like the folks who are no longer county in the unemployment rate, even though I reference that same rate as proof I’m bring unemployment down. Let's put people back to work rebuilding vacant homes in run-down neighborhoods that will likely never be occupied again. And this year, my Administration will begin to partner with 20 of the hardest-hit towns in America to get these communities back on their feet. We'll work with local leaders to target resources at public safety, education, and housing. We'll give new tax credits to businesses that hire and invest. And we'll work to strengthen families by removing the financial deterrents to marriage for low-income couples, and doing more to encourage fatherhood – because what makes you a man isn't the ability to conceive a child; it's having the courage to raise one, even if you can’t afford it.

Stronger families. Stronger communities. A stronger America. It is this kind of prosperity – broad, shared, and built on a thriving middle class – that has always been the source of our progress at home. It is also the foundation of our power and influence throughout the world. Without a strong economy, we simply cannot impose our will on the rest of the world.

Tonight, we stand united in saluting the troops and civilians who sacrifice every day to protect us. Because of them, we can say with confidence that America will complete its mission in Afghanistan, and achieve our objective of defeating the core of al Qaeda. Already, we have brought home 33,000 of our brave servicemen and women. This spring, our forces will move into a support role, while Afghan security forces take the lead. Tonight, I can announce that over the next year, another 34,000 American troops will come home from Afghanistan. This drawdown will continue. And by the end of next year, our war in Afghanistan will be over. Just in time for Iran.

Beyond 2014, America's commitment to a unified and sovereign Afghanistan will endure, but the nature of our commitment will change. We are negotiating an agreement with the Afghan government that focuses on two missions: training and equipping Afghan forces so that the country does not again slip into chaos, and counter-terrorism efforts that allow us to pursue the remnants of al Qaeda and their affiliates.
Today, the organization that attacked us on 9/11 is a shadow of its former self. Different al Qaeda affiliates and extremist groups have emerged – from the Arabian Peninsula to Africa. The threat these groups pose is evolving. But to meet this threat, we don't need to send tens of thousands of our sons and daughters abroad, or occupy other nations. Instead, we will need to help countries like Yemen, Libya, and Somalia provide for their own security, and help allies who take the fight to terrorists, as we have in Mali. And, where necessary, through a range of capabilities, we will continue to take direct action against those terrorists who we tell you pose the gravest threat to American financial supremacy.

As we do, we must enlist our values in the fight. That is why my Administration has worked tirelessly to forge a durable legal and policy framework to guide our counterterrorism operations. Throughout, we have kept Congress fully informed of our efforts. I recognize that in our democracy, wait.. I mean republic, no one should just take my word that we're doing things the right way. So, in the months ahead, I will continue to engage with Congress to ensure not only that our targeting, detention, and prosecution of terrorists remains consistent with our laws and system of checks and balances, but that our efforts appear to be but really aren’t more transparent to the American people and to the world.

Of course, our challenges don't end with al Qaeda. America will continue to lead the effort to prevent the spread of the world's most dangerous weapons. The regime in North Korea must know that they will only achieve security and prosperity by meeting their international obligations. Provocations of the sort we saw last night will only isolate them further, as we stand by our allies, strengthen our own missile defense, and lead the world in taking firm action in response to these threats.

Likewise, the leaders of Iran must recognize that now is the time for a diplomatic solution, because a coalition stands united in demanding that they meet their obligations, and we will do what is necessary to prevent them from getting a nuclear weapon. At the same time, we will engage Russia to seek further reductions in our nuclear arsenals, and continue leading the global effort to secure nuclear materials that could fall into the wrong hands – because our ability to influence others depends on our willingness to force them to do what we want.
America must also face the rapidly growing threat from cyber-attacks. We know hackers steal people's identities and infiltrate private e-mail. We know foreign countries and companies swipe our corporate secrets. Now our enemies are also seeking the ability to sabotage our power grid, our financial institutions, and our air traffic control systems. We cannot look back years from now and wonder why we did nothing in the face of real threats to our security and our economy.

That's why, earlier today, I signed a new executive order that will strengthen our cyber defenses by increasing information sharing, and developing standards to protect our national security, our jobs, and our privacy. Now, Congress must act as well, by passing legislation to give the government greater control and the capacity to secure our networks and deter attacks.

Even as we appear to protect our people, we should remember that today's world presents not only dangers, but opportunities. To boost American exports, support American jobs, and level the playing field in the growing markets of Asia, we intend to complete negotiations on a Trans-Pacific Partnership. And tonight, I am announcing that we will launch talks on a comprehensive Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the European Union – because trade that is free and fair across the Atlantic and Asia supports millions of good-paying American jobs, even though the reality is that without wage parity between economies there can never be “free and fair” trade.. but you don’t know that..

We also know that progress in the most impoverished parts of our world enriches us all. In many places, people live on little more than a dollar a day. So the United States will join with our allies to eradicate such extreme poverty in the next two decades: by connecting more people to the global economy and empowering women; by giving our young and brightest minds new opportunities to serve and helping communities to feed, power, and educate themselves; by saving the world's children from preventable deaths; and by realizing the promise of an AIDS-free generation. Of course none of this will happen as we need these parts of the world to remain poor, because they are the next stop in the never ending search for low-cost labor.

Above all, America must appear to remain a beacon to all who seek freedom during this period of historic change. I saw the power of hope last year in Rangoon – when Aung San Suu Kyi welcomed an American President into the home where she had been imprisoned for years; when thousands of Burmese lined the streets, waving American flags, including a man who said, "There is justice and law in the United States. I want our country to be like that." What a fool…

In defense of the dollar, we will remain the anchor of strong alliances from the Americas to Africa; from Europe to Asia. In the Middle East, we will stand with citizens as they demand what they think are their universal rights, and support stable transitions to democracies we can control. The process will be messy, and we cannot presume to dictate the course of change in countries like Egypt; but we can – and will – insist on respect for the fundamental use of the dollar as the continued reserve currency. We will keep the pressure on a Syrian regime that has murdered its own people, and support opposition leaders that respect the rights of every Syrian. And we will stand steadfast with Israel in pursuit of security and a lasting peace. These are the messages I will deliver when I travel to the Middle East next month.

All this work depends on the courage and sacrifice of those who serve in dangerous places at great personal risk – our diplomats, our intelligence officers, and the men and women of the United States Armed Forces. As long as I'm Commander-in-Chief, we will do whatever we must to protect those who serve me… err.. I mean their country abroad, and we will maintain the best military in the world. We will invest in new capabilities, even as we reduce waste and wartime spending. We will ensure equal treatment for all service members, and equal benefits for their families – gay and straight. We will draw upon the courage and skills of our sisters and daughters, because women have proven under fire that they are ready for combat. We will keep faith with our veterans – and tell you we are investing in world-class care, including mental health care, for our wounded warriors; supporting our military families and giving our veterans the benefits, education, and job opportunities they have earned, and hope you believe us. And I want to thank my wife Michelle and Dr. Jill Biden for their continued dedication to serving our military families as well as they serve us.

But defending our freedom is not the job of our military alone. We must all do our part to make sure our God-given rights are protected here at home. That includes our most fundamental right as citizens: the right to vote. When any Americans – no matter where they live or what their party – are denied that right simply because they can't wait for five, six, seven hours just to cast their ballot, we are betraying our ideals. That's why, tonight, I'm announcing a non-partisan commission to improve the voting experience in America. And I'm asking two long-time experts in the field, who've recently served as the top attorneys for my campaign and for Governor Romney's campaign, to lead it. We can fix this, and we will. The American people demand it. And so does our democracy…errr.. I mean our Republic.

Of course, what I've said tonight matters little if we don't come together to protect our most precious resource – our children.

It has been two months since Newtown. I know this is not the first time this country has debated how to reduce gun violence. And I need you to believe that this time is different. Overwhelming majorities of Americans – Americans who believe in the 2nd Amendment – have come together around commonsense reform – like background checks that will make it harder for criminals to get their hands on a gun, even though criminals by default don’t obey laws so I’m not sure on how that will actually work. Senators of both parties are working together on tough new laws to prevent anyone from buying guns for resale to criminals, although I’m not sure how someone would know how to identify a criminal that wants to buy a gun. Police chiefs are asking our help to get weapons of war and massive ammunition magazines off our streets, because they are tired of being outgunned, even they already are with the massive gun sales since I took office.

Each of these proposals deserves a vote in Congress. If you want to vote no, that's your choice. But these proposals deserve a vote.
Because in the two months since Newtown, more than a thousand birthdays, graduations, and anniversaries have been stolen from our lives by a bullet from a gun, even though there it is very likely that the proposed legislation would not have prevented any of the murders.
One of those we lost was a young girl named Hadiya Pendleton. She was 15 years old. She loved Fig Newtons and lip gloss. She was a majorette. She was so good to her friends, they all thought they were her best friend. Just three weeks ago, she was here, in Washington, with her classmates, performing for her country at my inauguration. And a week later, she was shot and killed in a Chicago park after school, just a mile away from my house. In Chicago, the one city in the U.S. where we have the highest murder rate, and the most gun laws. Hmm.. makes you think.. oh wait.. nevermind.

Hadiya's parents, Nate and Cleo, are in this chamber tonight, along with more than two dozen Americans whose lives have been torn apart by gun violence. They deserve a vote.

Gabby Giffords deserves a vote.

The families of Newtown deserve a vote.

The families of Aurora deserve a vote.

The families of Oak Creek, and Tucson, and Blacksburg, and the countless other communities ripped open by gun violence – they deserve a simple vote.

Our actions will not prevent every senseless act of violence in this country. Indeed, no laws, no initiatives, no administrative acts will perfectly solve all the challenges I've outlined tonight. But we were never sent here to be perfect. We were sent here to make what difference we can, to secure this nation, expand opportunity, and uphold our ideals through the hard, often frustrating, but absolutely necessary work of self-government.

We were sent here to look out for our fellow Americans the same way they look out for one another, every single day, usually without fanfare, all across this country. We should follow their example.

We should follow the example of a New York City nurse named Menchu Sanchez. When Hurricane Sandy plunged her hospital into darkness, her thoughts were not with how her own home was faring – they were with the twenty precious newborns in her care and the rescue plan she devised that kept them all safe.

We should follow the example of a North Miami woman named Desiline Victor. When she arrived at her polling place, she was told the wait to vote might be six hours. And as time ticked by, her concern was not with her tired body or aching feet, but whether folks like her would get to have their say. Hour after hour, a throng of people stayed in line in support of her. Because Desiline is 102 years old. And they erupted in cheers when she finally put on a sticker that read "I Voted."

We should follow the example of a police officer named Brian Murphy. When a gunman opened fire on a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, and Brian was the first to arrive, he did not consider his own safety. He fought back until help arrived, and ordered his fellow officers to protect the safety of the Americans worshiping inside – even as he lay bleeding from twelve bullet wounds.
When asked how he did that, Brian said, "That's just the way we're made."

That's just the way we're made.

We may do different jobs, and wear different uniforms, and hold different views than the person beside us. But as Americans, we all share the same proud title:

We are citizens. It's a word that doesn't just describe our nationality or legal status. Oh wait.. yes it does… my bad.

It describes the way we're made. It describes what we believe. It captures the enduring idea that this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another and to future generations; that our rights are wrapped up in the rights of others; and that well into our third century as a nation, it remains the task of us all, as citizens of these United States, to be the authors of the next great chapter in our American story.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.

[steveo777]

Hey I stumbled across the unedited version of the State of The Union Address:

Full text: Original State of the Union Address

Prepared text of President Obama's State of the Union Address:

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, fellow citizens:

Fifty-one years ago, John F. Kennedy declared to this Chamber that "the Constitution makes us not rivals for power but partners for progress…It is my task," he said, "to report the State of the Union – to improve it is the task of us all."

Tonight, thanks to the indifference of the American people, there is much progress to report. After a decade of grinding war, our brave men and women in uniform are coming home. After years of grueling recession, our businesses have created a net of 400,000 fewer jobs today (if you count government jobs) than when I took office in January 2009. To be clear, that time frame includes the worst job losses which took place in 2009. Even though they occurred on my watch, we all know they were the result of Bush policies.

With U.S. auto manufacturers making less domestically than abroad, we buy more American cars than we have in five years, which explains why we buy less foreign oil than we have in twenty. Our housing market is healing because the banks are artificially subsidizing the housing market by not foreclosing on roughly 2 million homes, our stock market is rebounding nominally but not fundamentally, largely due to the trillions of Federal Reserve money being funneled through banks to shore up their balance sheets, which is then used by banks trading desks to speculate on Wall Street via logarithmic computer trading that now represents 80% of all trades. Oh yea, and consumers, patients, and homeowners enjoy stronger protections than ever before.

Together, we have cleared away the rubble of crisis but have not fixed what caused it, or punished those that created it in the first place, and can say with renewed confidence that the state of our union is stronger than ever, because nothing has changed.
But we gather here knowing that there are millions of Americans whose hard work and dedication have not yet been rewarded. Our economy is adding jobs – but too many people still can't find full-time employment. Corporate profits have rocketed to all-time highs, fueled by layoffs (firings), outsourcing and increased worker productivity – but for more than a decade, wages and incomes have barely budged in comparison to the rapid debasement of our currency and real rise in consumer prices.

It is our generation's task, then, to reignite the true engine of America's economic growth – a rising, thriving middle class.

It is our unfinished task to restore the basic bargain that built this country – the idea that if you work hard and meet your responsibilities; you can get ahead, no matter where you come from, what you look like, or who you love. But we aren’t gonna make government smaller.

It is our unfinished task to make sure that all of you still believe that this government works on behalf of the many, and not just the few; that it encourages free enterprise, rewards individual initiative, and opens the doors of opportunity to every child across this great nation.

The American people are growing to expect government to solve every problem. They expect those of us in this chamber to lie on every issue. But they do not expect us to put the government's interests before special interests and lobbyists, party, the government ,oh.. and The People. They don’t expect us to forge reasonable compromise where we can. For they know that America moves forward only when Washington does nothing; and that the responsibility of improving this union has been lost to us all.

Our work must begin by making some basic decisions about our budget – decisions that will have a huge impact on the strength of our recovery.

Over the last few years, both parties have worked together to reduce the deficit by more than $2.5 trillion over 10 years– mostly through spending cuts, but also by raising tax rates on the wealthiest 1 % of Americans immediately. As a result, we are more than halfway towards the goal of taxing more now, and spending less later.

Now we need to finish the job of destroying our country. And the question is, how?

In 2011, Congress passed a law that I signed, saying that if both parties couldn't agree on a plan to reach our deficit goal, about a trillion dollars' worth of budget cuts would automatically go into effect this year. We all knew these sudden, harsh, arbitrary cuts would jeopardize our military readiness. They'd devastate priorities like education, energy, and medical research. They would certainly slow our recovery, and cost us hundreds of thousands of jobs. But we had to do something then, to make you all think we were actually doing something then. That's why Democrats, Republicans, business leaders, and economists are now saying that these cuts, known here in Washington as "the sequester," are a really bad idea. (wink)

Now, some in this Congress have proposed preventing only the defense cuts by making even bigger cuts to things like education and job training; Medicare and Social Security benefits.

I need you to believe that this idea is even worse. Yes it’s true, the biggest driver of our long-term debt is the rising cost of health care for an aging population. And those of us who care deeply about programs like Medicare must embrace the need for reforms – otherwise, our retirement programs will crowd out the taxes I want to pass for Congress..er… (cough) for our children, and jeopardize the promise of a secure retirement for future generations.

But we can't ask senior citizens and working families to shoulder the entire burden of deficit reduction while asking nothing more from the wealthiest and most powerful. We won't grow the middle class simply by shifting the cost of health care or college onto families that are already struggling, or by forcing communities to lay off more teachers, cops, and firefighters. Most Americans – Democrats, Republicans, and Independents – understand that we can't just cut our way to prosperity, because that just makes too much sense… and more importantly, most members of Congress would lose their jobs. They know that broad-based economic growth requires a balanced approach to deficit reduction, with spending cuts and revenue cuts, and with everybody doing their fair share. But that's not the approach I offer tonight.

On Medicare, I'm prepared to enact reforms that will achieve the same amount of health care savings by the beginning of the next decade as the reforms proposed by the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles commission. Already, we’ve told you that the Affordable Care Act is helping to slow the growth of health care costs, even though the CBO has concluded that the Affordable Care Act will ultimately increase health care costs, which was the original intent, since what we really want is a single payer system, controlled by the government of course. The reforms I'm proposing won’t go much further. We say we’ll reduce taxpayer subsidies to prescription drug companies and ask more from the wealthiest seniors, but who am I kidding, heck we mean all of them. We'll say we’ll bring down costs by changing the way our government pays for Medicare, because our medical bills shouldn't be based on the number of tests ordered or days spent in the hospital – they should be based on the quality of care that our seniors receive, but that’s a total smokescreen. And I am open to additional reforms from both parties, so long as they don't violate the ultimate goal, a single payer healthcare system. Our government shouldn't make promises we cannot lie our way out of – but we must keep the lies we've already made.

To hit the rest of our deficit reduction target, we should do what leaders in both parties have already suggested for the last 15 years, and save a couple trillion dollars by getting rid of tax loopholes and deductions for the well-off and well-connected. After all, why would we choose to make deeper cuts to education and Medicare just to protect special interest tax breaks? How is that fair? How does that promote growth?

Now is our best chance for bipartisan, comprehensive tax reform that encourages job creation, dramatically shrinks the IRS from its current size of over 100,000 employees, and helps bring down the deficit by increasing tax revenues. The American people deserve a tax code that helps small businesses spend less time filling out complicated forms, and more time expanding and hiring; a tax code that ensures billionaires with high-powered accountants can't pay a lower rate than their hard-working secretaries; a tax code that lowers incentives to move jobs overseas, and lowers tax rates for businesses and manufacturers that create jobs right here in America, but doesn’t decrease government tax revenues. That's what tax reform can deliver. That's what we can do together.

I realize that tax reform and entitlement reform won't be easy. The politics won’t be hard for either side. The People will get 100 percent of what we want. The alternative will cost us jobs, hurt our economy, and visit hardship on millions of hardworking Americans. So let's pretend to set party interests aside, and work to pass a budget, something that has never happened during my Presidency, that replaces cuts to the deficit and national debt with taxes. And let's do it without the brinksmanship that stresses consumers and scares off investors. The greatest nation on Earth cannot keep conducting its business by drifting from one intentionally manufactured crisis to the next. Let's agree, right here, right now, to pretend to keep the people's government open, pay our bills on time, and always uphold the full faith and credit of the United States of America. The American people have worked too hard, for too long, rebuilding from one crisis to finally realize that their elected officials incompetence and corruption has been the cause all along.

This is why I want the spending ceiling to be permanently unlimited, because we don’t want you to have to think about it.
Now, most of us in Congress and the White House agree that agreeing to agree on having a plan to reduce the deficit must be part of our agenda of deception. But let's be clear: deficit reduction alone is not an economic plan that works for a government that believes in ever growing spending. A growing economy that creates good, middle-class jobs – that must be the North Star that guides our efforts, but deficit reduction is not part of it.

Every day, in order to distract ourselves from the real problems, we should ask ourselves three questions as a nation: How do we attract more jobs to our shores? How do we equip our people with the skills needed to do those jobs? And how do we make sure that hard work leads to a decent living?

A year and a half ago, I put forward an American Jobs Act that independent economists said would create more than one million new jobs. I thank the last Congress for passing some of that agenda, and I urge this Congress to pass the rest. Tonight, I'll lay out additional proposals that aren’t fully paid for and fully consistent with the budget framework both parties agreed to just 18 months ago. Let me repeat – everything I'm proposing tonight should increase our deficit. It's a bigger government we need, a government that sets priorities and taxes to try and achieve broad-based growth.

Our first priority is making America a magnet for new jobs and manufacturing.

After shedding jobs for more than 10 years, our manufacturers have added very few jobs over the past three. Caterpillar is bringing jobs back from Japan. Ford is bringing jobs back from Mexico. After locating plants in other countries like China, Intel is opening its most advanced plant right here at home. And this year, Apple will start making Macs in America again. But make no mistake; we’re still horribly too expensive for manufacturing in the U.S.A. We have to drastically lower wages in this country to compete with Asia.

There are things we can do, right now, to accelerate this trend. Last year, we created our first manufacturing innovation institute in Youngstown, Ohio. A once-shuttered warehouse is now a state-of-the art lab where 2 or 3 workers are mastering the 3D printing that has the potential to revolutionize the way we make almost everything. There's no reason this can't happen in other towns. So tonight, I'm announcing the launch of three more of these manufacturing hubs, where businesses will partner and suck money out of the Departments of Defense and Energy to turn regions left behind by globalization into pretend global centers of high-tech jobs. And I ask this Congress to help create and legislate spending to pay for a network of fifteen of these hubs that in no way guarantee that the next revolution in manufacturing is Made in America.

If we want to make the best products, we also have to invest in the best ideas. Every dollar we invested to map the human genome returned $140 to our economy, even though we can find it. Today, our scientists are mapping the human brain to unlock the answers to Alzheimer's; developing drugs to regenerate damaged organs; devising new material to make batteries ten times more powerful. Now is not the time to gut these non-job-creating taxes in science and innovation. Now is the time to reach a level of research and development not seen since the height of the Space Race. And today, no area holds more promise for additional taxation than our subsidies in American energy.

After years of waiting for the U.S. energy oligarchy to buy up the alternative energy industry, we are finally poised to control our own energy future. We produce more oil at home than we have in 15 years. We have doubled the distance our cars will go on a gallon of gas, and the amount of renewable energy we generate from sources like wind and solar – with tens of thousands of good, American jobs to show for it. We produce more natural gas than ever before – and nearly everyone's energy bill is lower because of it. And over the last four years, our emissions of the dangerous carbon pollution that threatens our planet have actually fallen.

But I need you to believe that, for the sake of our children and our future and most importantly, new taxes, that we must do more to combat climate change. Yes, it's true that no single event makes a trend. But the fact is, the 12 hottest years on record have all come in the last 15. Heat waves, droughts, wildfires, and floods – all are now more frequent and intense because we are making sure you are told so. We can choose to believe the truth, that Superstorm Sandy, and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen were all just a freak coincidence. Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of misleading and inaccurate science – and act before it's too late.

The good news is, the government and special interests can make meaningful profit on this issue while driving strong economic growth. I urge this Congress to pursue a bipartisan, market-based solution to climate change, like the one John McCain and Joe Lieberman worked on together a few years ago. But if Congress won't act soon to create this market, I will. I will direct my Cabinet to come up with executive actions we can take, now and in the future, to reduce pollution, prepare our communities for the consequences of climate change, and speed the transition to more sustainable sources of energy and those markets.

Four years ago, other countries dominated the clean energy market and the jobs that came with it. We've begun to change that. Last year, wind energy, which only accounts for 2.3 percent of total U.S. electrical supply, added nearly half of all new power capacity in America. So it really didn’t add much, but that’s the best I can say. Anyways.. let's generate even more. Solar energy gets cheaper by the year – so let's drive costs down even further. As long as countries like China keep going all-in on clean energy, so must we continue to subsidize the creation of companies like Solyndra that wind up moving their manufacturing plants to China.

In the meantime, the natural gas boom has led to cleaner power and greater energy independence. That's why my Administration will keep cutting red tape and speeding up new oil and gas permits. But I also want to work with this Congress to encourage the research and technology that helps natural gas burn even cleaner and protects our air and water.

Indeed, much of our new-found energy is drawn from lands and waters that we, the public, own together. So tonight, I propose new taxes that we use to fund an Energy Security Trust that will drive new research and technology to shift our cars and trucks off oil for good. If a non-partisan coalition of CEOs and retired generals and admirals can get behind this idea, then so can we. Let's take their advice and free our families and businesses from the painful spikes in gas prices we've put up with for far too long. I'm also issuing a new goal for America: let's cut in half the energy wasted by our homes and businesses over the next twenty years. The states with the best ideas to create jobs and lower energy bills by constructing more efficient buildings will receive federal support to help make it happen.

America's energy sector is just one part of an aging infrastructure badly in need of repair. Ask any CEO where they'd rather locate and hire: a country with deteriorating roads and bridges, or one with high-speed rail and internet; high-tech schools and self-healing power grids. The CEO of Siemens America – a company that brought hundreds of new jobs to North Carolina – has said that if we upgrade our infrastructure, they'll bring even more jobs. And I know that you want these job-creating projects in your districts. I've seen you all at the ribbon-cuttings.
Tonight, I propose a "Tax&Fix-It-First" program to put people to work as soon as possible on our most urgent repairs, like the nearly 70,000 structurally deficient bridges across the country. And to make sure taxpayers don't shoulder the whole burden, I'm also proposing a Partnership to Rebuild America that attracts private capital to upgrade what our businesses need most: modern ports to move our goods; modern pipelines to withstand a storm; modern schools worthy of our children. Let's prove that there is no better place to do business than the United States of America. And let's start right away.

Part of our rebuilding effort must also involve our housing sector. Today, even though our housing market is no where near finally healing from the collapse of 2007, home prices are rising at the fastest pace in six years, with home purchases are up nearly 50 percent, and construction is expanding again.

But even with mortgage rates near a 50-year low, too many families with solid credit who want to buy a home are being rejected. Too many families who have never missed a payment and want to refinance are being told no. Why? Because The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act imposed such heaving credit qualification restrictions on the banks that it’s holding our entire economy back, and we need to fix it. Even though this will do nothing to change things, right now, there's a bill in this Congress that would give every responsible homeowner in America the chance to save $3,000 a year by refinancing at today's rates. Democrats and Republicans have supported it before. What are we waiting for? Take a vote, and send me that bill. Right now, overlapping regulations keep responsible young families from buying their first home. What's holding us back? Let's streamline the process, and help our economy grow.

These initiatives in manufacturing, energy, infrastructure, and housing will appear to help entrepreneurs and small business owners expand and create new jobs. But none of it will matter because we’ve also sold the perception that our citizens don’t have the skills and training to fill those jobs.

Study after study shows that the sooner a child begins learning, the better he or she does down the road. But today, fewer than 3 in 10 four year-olds are enrolled in a high-quality preschool program. Most middle-class parents can't afford a few hundred bucks a week for private preschool. And for poor kids who need help the most, this lack of access to preschool education can shadow them for the rest of their lives.
Tonight, I propose working with states to make high-quality preschool available to every child in America. Every dollar we invest in high-quality early education can save more than seven dollars later on – by boosting graduation rates, reducing teen pregnancy, even reducing violent crime. In states that make it a priority to educate our youngest children, like Georgia or Oklahoma, studies show students grow up more likely to read and do math at grade level, graduate high school, hold a job, and form more stable families of their own. So let's do what works, and make sure none of our children start the race of life already behind. Let's give our kids that chance. Awww who am I kidding.. they’re fucked.

Let's also make sure that a high school diploma puts our kids on a path to a good job. Right now, countries like Germany focus on graduating their high school students with the equivalent of a technical degree from one of our community colleges, so that they're ready for a job. At schools like P-Tech in Brooklyn, collaboration between New York Public Schools, the City University of New York, and IBM, students will graduate with a high school diploma and an associate degree in computers or engineering.

We need to give every American student opportunities like this. Four years ago, we started Race to the Top – a competition that convinced almost every state to develop smarter curricula and higher standards, for about 1 percent of what we spend on education each year. Tonight, I'm announcing a new challenge to redesign America's high schools so they better equip graduates for the demands of a high-tech economy. We'll reward schools that develop new partnerships with colleges and employers, and create classes that focus on science, technology, engineering, and math – the skills today's employers are looking for to fill jobs right now and in the future.
Now, even with better high schools, most young people will need some higher education. It's a simple fact: the more education you have, the more likely you are to have a job and work your way into the middle class. But today, skyrocketing costs price way too many young people out of a higher education, or saddles them with unsustainable debt.

Through tax credits, grants, and better loans, we have made college more affordable for millions of students and families over the last few years. But taxpayers cannot continue to subsidize the soaring cost of higher education. Colleges must do their part to keep costs down, and it's our job to make sure they do. Tonight, I ask Congress to change the Higher Education Act, so that affordability and value are included in determining which colleges receive certain types of federal aid. And tomorrow, my Administration will release a new "College Scorecard" that parents and students can use to compare schools based on a simple criteria: where you can get the most bang for your educational buck.

To grow our middle class, our citizens must have access to the education and training that today's jobs require. But we also have to make sure that America remains a place where everyone who's willing to work hard has the chance to get ahead.

Our economy is stronger when we harness the lower cost talents of immigrants. And right now, leaders from the business, labor, law enforcement, and faith communities all agree that the time has come to pass comprehensive immigration reform, for the 9th time in the last 50 years.

Real reform means strong border security, and we can build on the progress my Administration has already made – putting more boots on the southern border than at any time in our history, and reducing illegal crossings to their lowest levels in 40 years.

Real reform means establishing a responsible pathway to earned citizenship – a path that includes passing a background check, paying taxes and a meaningful penalty, learning English, and going to the back of the line behind the folks trying to come here legally.

And real reform means fixing the legal immigration system to cut waiting periods, reduce bureaucracy, and attract the highly-skilled entrepreneurs and engineers that will help create jobs and grow our economy.

In other words, we know what needs to be done. As we speak, bipartisan groups in both chambers are working diligently to draft a bill, and I applaud their efforts. Now let's get this done. Send me a comprehensive immigration reform bill in the next few months, and I will sign it right away.

But we can't stop there. We know our economy is stronger when our wives, mothers, and daughters can live their lives free from discrimination in the workplace, and free from the fear of domestic violence. Today, the Senate passed the Violence Against Women Act that Joe Biden originally wrote almost 20 years ago. I urge the House to do the same. And I ask this Congress to declare that women should earn a living equal to their efforts, and finally pass the Paycheck Fairness Act this year.

We know our economy is stronger when we reward an honest day's work with honest wages. But today, a full-time worker making the minimum wage earns $14,500 a year. Even with the tax relief we've put in place, a family with two kids that earns the minimum wage still lives below the poverty line. That's wrong. That's why, since the last time this Congress raised the minimum wage, nineteen states have chosen to bump theirs even higher.

Tonight, let's declare that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty, and instead of stopping the debasement of our currency that is inflating our cost of living, let’s instead, even though it will likely cost many their jobs, raise the federal minimum wage to $9.00 an hour. This single step would raise the incomes of millions of working. It could mean the difference between groceries or the food bank; rent or eviction; scraping by or finally getting ahead. For businesses across the country, it would mean customers with more money in their pockets. In fact, working folks shouldn't have to wait year after year for the minimum wage to go up while CEO pay has never been higher. So here's an idea that Governor Romney and I actually agreed on last year: let's tie the minimum wage to the cost of living, so that it finally becomes a wage you can live on.

Tonight, let's also recognize that there are communities in this country where no matter how hard you work, it's virtually impossible to get ahead. Factory towns decimated from years of plants packing up. Inescapable pockets of poverty, urban and rural, where young adults are still fighting for their first job. America is not a place where chance of birth or circumstance should decide our destiny. And that is why we need to build new ladders of opportunity into the middle class for all who are willing to climb them.

Let's offer incentives to companies that hire Americans who've got what it takes to fill that job opening, but have been out of work so long that no one will give them a chance, like the folks who are no longer county in the unemployment rate, even though I reference that same rate as proof I’m bring unemployment down. Let's put people back to work rebuilding vacant homes in run-down neighborhoods that will likely never be occupied again. And this year, my Administration will begin to partner with 20 of the hardest-hit towns in America to get these communities back on their feet. We'll work with local leaders to target resources at public safety, education, and housing. We'll give new tax credits to businesses that hire and invest. And we'll work to strengthen families by removing the financial deterrents to marriage for low-income couples, and doing more to encourage fatherhood – because what makes you a man isn't the ability to conceive a child; it's having the courage to raise one, even if you can’t afford it.

Stronger families. Stronger communities. A stronger America. It is this kind of prosperity – broad, shared, and built on a thriving middle class – that has always been the source of our progress at home. It is also the foundation of our power and influence throughout the world. Without a strong economy, we simply cannot impose our will on the rest of the world.

Tonight, we stand united in saluting the troops and civilians who sacrifice every day to protect us. Because of them, we can say with confidence that America will complete its mission in Afghanistan, and achieve our objective of defeating the core of al Qaeda. Already, we have brought home 33,000 of our brave servicemen and women. This spring, our forces will move into a support role, while Afghan security forces take the lead. Tonight, I can announce that over the next year, another 34,000 American troops will come home from Afghanistan. This drawdown will continue. And by the end of next year, our war in Afghanistan will be over. Just in time for Iran.

Beyond 2014, America's commitment to a unified and sovereign Afghanistan will endure, but the nature of our commitment will change. We are negotiating an agreement with the Afghan government that focuses on two missions: training and equipping Afghan forces so that the country does not again slip into chaos, and counter-terrorism efforts that allow us to pursue the remnants of al Qaeda and their affiliates.
Today, the organization that attacked us on 9/11 is a shadow of its former self. Different al Qaeda affiliates and extremist groups have emerged – from the Arabian Peninsula to Africa. The threat these groups pose is evolving. But to meet this threat, we don't need to send tens of thousands of our sons and daughters abroad, or occupy other nations. Instead, we will need to help countries like Yemen, Libya, and Somalia provide for their own security, and help allies who take the fight to terrorists, as we have in Mali. And, where necessary, through a range of capabilities, we will continue to take direct action against those terrorists who we tell you pose the gravest threat to American financial supremacy.

As we do, we must enlist our values in the fight. That is why my Administration has worked tirelessly to forge a durable legal and policy framework to guide our counterterrorism operations. Throughout, we have kept Congress fully informed of our efforts. I recognize that in our democracy, wait.. I mean republic, no one should just take my word that we're doing things the right way. So, in the months ahead, I will continue to engage with Congress to ensure not only that our targeting, detention, and prosecution of terrorists remains consistent with our laws and system of checks and balances, but that our efforts appear to be but really aren’t more transparent to the American people and to the world.

Of course, our challenges don't end with al Qaeda. America will continue to lead the effort to prevent the spread of the world's most dangerous weapons. The regime in North Korea must know that they will only achieve security and prosperity by meeting their international obligations. Provocations of the sort we saw last night will only isolate them further, as we stand by our allies, strengthen our own missile defense, and lead the world in taking firm action in response to these threats.

Likewise, the leaders of Iran must recognize that now is the time for a diplomatic solution, because a coalition stands united in demanding that they meet their obligations, and we will do what is necessary to prevent them from getting a nuclear weapon. At the same time, we will engage Russia to seek further reductions in our nuclear arsenals, and continue leading the global effort to secure nuclear materials that could fall into the wrong hands – because our ability to influence others depends on our willingness to force them to do what we want.
America must also face the rapidly growing threat from cyber-attacks. We know hackers steal people's identities and infiltrate private e-mail. We know foreign countries and companies swipe our corporate secrets. Now our enemies are also seeking the ability to sabotage our power grid, our financial institutions, and our air traffic control systems. We cannot look back years from now and wonder why we did nothing in the face of real threats to our security and our economy.

That's why, earlier today, I signed a new executive order that will strengthen our cyber defenses by increasing information sharing, and developing standards to protect our national security, our jobs, and our privacy. Now, Congress must act as well, by passing legislation to give the government greater control and the capacity to secure our networks and deter attacks.

Even as we appear to protect our people, we should remember that today's world presents not only dangers, but opportunities. To boost American exports, support American jobs, and level the playing field in the growing markets of Asia, we intend to complete negotiations on a Trans-Pacific Partnership. And tonight, I am announcing that we will launch talks on a comprehensive Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the European Union – because trade that is free and fair across the Atlantic and Asia supports millions of good-paying American jobs, even though the reality is that without wage parity between economies there can never be “free and fair” trade.. but you don’t know that..

We also know that progress in the most impoverished parts of our world enriches us all. In many places, people live on little more than a dollar a day. So the United States will join with our allies to eradicate such extreme poverty in the next two decades: by connecting more people to the global economy and empowering women; by giving our young and brightest minds new opportunities to serve and helping communities to feed, power, and educate themselves; by saving the world's children from preventable deaths; and by realizing the promise of an AIDS-free generation. Of course none of this will happen as we need these parts of the world to remain poor, because they are the next stop in the never ending search for low-cost labor.

Above all, America must appear to remain a beacon to all who seek freedom during this period of historic change. I saw the power of hope last year in Rangoon – when Aung San Suu Kyi welcomed an American President into the home where she had been imprisoned for years; when thousands of Burmese lined the streets, waving American flags, including a man who said, "There is justice and law in the United States. I want our country to be like that." What a fool…

In defense of the dollar, we will remain the anchor of strong alliances from the Americas to Africa; from Europe to Asia. In the Middle East, we will stand with citizens as they demand what they think are their universal rights, and support stable transitions to democracies we can control. The process will be messy, and we cannot presume to dictate the course of change in countries like Egypt; but we can – and will – insist on respect for the fundamental use of the dollar as the continued reserve currency. We will keep the pressure on a Syrian regime that has murdered its own people, and support opposition leaders that respect the rights of every Syrian. And we will stand steadfast with Israel in pursuit of security and a lasting peace. These are the messages I will deliver when I travel to the Middle East next month.

All this work depends on the courage and sacrifice of those who serve in dangerous places at great personal risk – our diplomats, our intelligence officers, and the men and women of the United States Armed Forces. As long as I'm Commander-in-Chief, we will do whatever we must to protect those who serve me… err.. I mean their country abroad, and we will maintain the best military in the world. We will invest in new capabilities, even as we reduce waste and wartime spending. We will ensure equal treatment for all service members, and equal benefits for their families – gay and straight. We will draw upon the courage and skills of our sisters and daughters, because women have proven under fire that they are ready for combat. We will keep faith with our veterans – and tell you we are investing in world-class care, including mental health care, for our wounded warriors; supporting our military families and giving our veterans the benefits, education, and job opportunities they have earned, and hope you believe us. And I want to thank my wife Michelle and Dr. Jill Biden for their continued dedication to serving our military families as well as they serve us.

But defending our freedom is not the job of our military alone. We must all do our part to make sure our God-given rights are protected here at home. That includes our most fundamental right as citizens: the right to vote. When any Americans – no matter where they live or what their party – are denied that right simply because they can't wait for five, six, seven hours just to cast their ballot, we are betraying our ideals. That's why, tonight, I'm announcing a non-partisan commission to improve the voting experience in America. And I'm asking two long-time experts in the field, who've recently served as the top attorneys for my campaign and for Governor Romney's campaign, to lead it. We can fix this, and we will. The American people demand it. And so does our democracy…errr.. I mean our Republic.

Of course, what I've said tonight matters little if we don't come together to protect our most precious resource – our children.

It has been two months since Newtown. I know this is not the first time this country has debated how to reduce gun violence. And I need you to believe that this time is different. Overwhelming majorities of Americans – Americans who believe in the 2nd Amendment – have come together around commonsense reform – like background checks that will make it harder for criminals to get their hands on a gun, even though criminals by default don’t obey laws so I’m not sure on how that will actually work. Senators of both parties are working together on tough new laws to prevent anyone from buying guns for resale to criminals, although I’m not sure how someone would know how to identify a criminal that wants to buy a gun. Police chiefs are asking our help to get weapons of war and massive ammunition magazines off our streets, because they are tired of being outgunned, even they already are with the massive gun sales since I took office.

Each of these proposals deserves a vote in Congress. If you want to vote no, that's your choice. But these proposals deserve a vote.
Because in the two months since Newtown, more than a thousand birthdays, graduations, and anniversaries have been stolen from our lives by a bullet from a gun, even though there it is very likely that the proposed legislation would not have prevented any of the murders.
One of those we lost was a young girl named Hadiya Pendleton. She was 15 years old. She loved Fig Newtons and lip gloss. She was a majorette. She was so good to her friends, they all thought they were her best friend. Just three weeks ago, she was here, in Washington, with her classmates, performing for her country at my inauguration. And a week later, she was shot and killed in a Chicago park after school, just a mile away from my house. In Chicago, the one city in the U.S. where we have the highest murder rate, and the most gun laws. Hmm.. makes you think.. oh wait.. nevermind.

Hadiya's parents, Nate and Cleo, are in this chamber tonight, along with more than two dozen Americans whose lives have been torn apart by gun violence. They deserve a vote.

Gabby Giffords deserves a vote.

The families of Newtown deserve a vote.

The families of Aurora deserve a vote.

The families of Oak Creek, and Tucson, and Blacksburg, and the countless other communities ripped open by gun violence – they deserve a simple vote.

Our actions will not prevent every senseless act of violence in this country. Indeed, no laws, no initiatives, no administrative acts will perfectly solve all the challenges I've outlined tonight. But we were never sent here to be perfect. We were sent here to make what difference we can, to secure this nation, expand opportunity, and uphold our ideals through the hard, often frustrating, but absolutely necessary work of self-government.

We were sent here to look out for our fellow Americans the same way they look out for one another, every single day, usually without fanfare, all across this country. We should follow their example.

We should follow the example of a New York City nurse named Menchu Sanchez. When Hurricane Sandy plunged her hospital into darkness, her thoughts were not with how her own home was faring – they were with the twenty precious newborns in her care and the rescue plan she devised that kept them all safe.

We should follow the example of a North Miami woman named Desiline Victor. When she arrived at her polling place, she was told the wait to vote might be six hours. And as time ticked by, her concern was not with her tired body or aching feet, but whether folks like her would get to have their say. Hour after hour, a throng of people stayed in line in support of her. Because Desiline is 102 years old. And they erupted in cheers when she finally put on a sticker that read "I Voted."

We should follow the example of a police officer named Brian Murphy. When a gunman opened fire on a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, and Brian was the first to arrive, he did not consider his own safety. He fought back until help arrived, and ordered his fellow officers to protect the safety of the Americans worshiping inside – even as he lay bleeding from twelve bullet wounds.
When asked how he did that, Brian said, "That's just the way we're made."

That's just the way we're made.

We may do different jobs, and wear different uniforms, and hold different views than the person beside us. But as Americans, we all share the same proud title:

We are citizens. It's a word that doesn't just describe our nationality or legal status. Oh wait.. yes it does… my bad.

It describes the way we're made. It describes what we believe. It captures the enduring idea that this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another and to future generations; that our rights are wrapped up in the rights of others; and that well into our third century as a nation, it remains the task of us all, as citizens of these United States, to be the authors of the next great chapter in our American story.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.

It is full of shit! It sounded like a bunch of campaign promises. I bet not even 25% of what he proposed ever comes true. I guess we'll just have to see what Barry, Biden and Boner can do.

[Gin and Tonic Sky]

And now that voters receiving more FROM the government than they pay in outnumber the voters actually paying for the others handouts/benefits/whatever....we're doomed. This was right out of the D playbook and they may have won. Hand out enough stuff and they'll vote for you. Once you tip the scales on government dependency, the D's win and productive citizens lose. And if you don't believe they really want to keep the scales tipped...you are smoking something stronger than what is now legal in some states.

The desire to succeed will wane and things will snowball downhill.

If you blame one party, you'd better blame both... since most of the heavy deficit spending started in 1973... when Nixon severed the final link between $USD and gold... and since 1973 there have been 5 Republican and 3 Democratic presidents... so BOTH parties have been borrowing money, and those "scales have been tipped"... for a looooooong time..




Last good American President ? Calvin Coolidge



Take a look at the party's in power... If ya wanna blame the Dems.. you gotta blame the Reps for not changing the spending when they had a chance...

[slucero]

LOL Matt!

[Gin and Tonic Sky]

LOL Matt!

No seriously If I were to carve out Mount Rushmore and ran the visitors center the following presidents would be on the hill...


1.Grover Cleveland
2.Calvin Coolidge
3.Thomas Jefferson
4. John Tyler

Martin Van Buren, Reagan and Jackson would each get a ice cream flavour or burger named after them in the visitor's center restaurant and honorable mentions.

Conversely Obama, LBJ, GW Bush, FDR, Teddy R and Wilson would have urinals or trash cans or some such thing named after them.

[hoagiepete]

And now that voters receiving more FROM the government than they pay in outnumber the voters actually paying for the others handouts/benefits/whatever....we're doomed. This was right out of the D playbook and they may have won. Hand out enough stuff and they'll vote for you. Once you tip the scales on government dependency, the D's win and productive citizens lose. And if you don't believe they really want to keep the scales tipped...you are smoking something stronger than what is now legal in some states.

The desire to succeed will wane and things will snowball downhill.

If you blame one party, you'd better blame both... since most of the heavy deficit spending started in 1973... when Nixon severed the final link between $USD and gold... and since 1973 there have been 5 Republican and 3 Democratic presidents... so BOTH parties have been borrowing money, and those "scales have been tipped"... for a looooooong time..


Take a look at the party's in power... If ya wanna blame the Dems.. you gotta blame the Reps for not changing the spending when they had a chance...

I concur that Republicans are also to blame. However their pork is an individual re-election tactic, not a party strategy. Since self-preservation is the ultimate goal, that's what they naturally do. They have to in order to be re-elected. Just look how those who actually want to cut government spending are being crucified by the left.

If they had any brains, they'd raise taxes a little for a lot of cuts, but the fear is the tax increase will hold, but the spending cuts will not.

[Boomchild]

I concur that Republicans are also to blame. However their pork is an individual re-election tactic, not a party strategy. Since self-preservation is the ultimate goal, that's what they naturally do. They have to in order to be re-elected. Just look how those who actually want to cut government spending are being crucified by the left.

If they had any brains, they'd raise taxes a little for a lot of cuts, but the fear is the tax increase will hold, but the spending cuts will not.

Seems like putting term limits on Congressmen and Senators would be a good idea. Fat chance of that ever happening though.

[Seven Wishes2]

you can't judge a person off how they look or you get railed. but you can judge a gun? is the function of an AR15 .223 semi automatic really that different than a rugar 10/22?
if you can't answer that question, stop making fucking gun laws. you can't regulate what you don't understand.

If you don't know the difference between a recoverable coma and a permanent persistent vegetative state caused by massive atrophy, you have no business legislating end-of-life issues.

Without looking it up, do you know the difference between a metabolic and adaptive workout regimen? Quickly, now. If you don't, you have no business telling someone how to perform an exercise.

I like your no-holds-barred approach, iceberg, whether or not I agree with you on anything, but the issue here isn't about the technical specs of any particular weapon. It's about making sure high-powered semis and assault rifles don't wind up in the hands of crazy people, and to ensure there are proper background checks conducted on everyone, everywhere.

[slucero]

you can't judge a person off how they look or you get railed. but you can judge a gun? is the function of an AR15 .223 semi automatic really that different than a rugar 10/22?
if you can't answer that question, stop making fucking gun laws. you can't regulate what you don't understand.

If you don't know the difference between a recoverable coma and a permanent persistent vegetative state caused by massive atrophy, you have no business legislating end-of-life issues.

Without looking it up, do you know the difference between a metabolic and adaptive workout regimen? Quickly, now. If you don't, you have no business telling someone how to perform an exercise.

I like your no-holds-barred approach, iceberg, whether or not I agree with you on anything, but the issue here isn't about the technical specs of any particular weapon. It's about making sure high-powered semis and assault rifles don't wind up in the hands of crazy people, and to ensure there are proper background checks conducted on everyone, everywhere.

The problem is that the impetus for the new legislation is the mass-murders, and the legislation is being sold as the cure... that it will keep guns out of the hands of criminals... and crazy people like Lantz.. (who stole his mother's unlocked guns).. when the simple truth is that it won't... which, when pressed, even the legislation's own supporters admit.

This is the equivalent of telling people car accidents will stop if we paint all cars white. When the real cause of car accidents is using the cell and/or texting while driving, drinking and driving, road rage.. and just plain old chance. Quite literally nothing to do with the car.

They certainly can't prove gun violence has increased when the FBI's "Crime in the United States" annual report shows all violent crime has actually FALLEN since 2008, even with gun sales rising year-over-year since 2010....



Yet buried within the mass murders is the mental condition of the killers themselves... of which over 90% had been on psychotropic drugs. Where was the screaming regarding that as a primary cause by anti-gun folks or the legislators in Washington?

Nowhere. Why?

The drug industry would not allow it. Why?

Because its much more profitable to medic these folks than it is to simply institutionalize them.

[Boomchild]

I like your no-holds-barred approach, iceberg, whether or not I agree with you on anything, but the issue here isn't about the technical specs of any particular weapon. It's about making sure high-powered semis and assault rifles don't wind up in the hands of crazy people, and to ensure there are proper background checks conducted on everyone, everywhere.

I think it would be better to put our efforts into the root cause and not the end result. Meaning, finding out where the system has failed to help diagnose, treat or put those that are mentally ill beyond rehabilitation in a safe place where they are protected from hurting themselves and anyone else. Banning these firearms won't stop them from finding something else as "weapon" to hurt groups of people. Not to mention that Columbine occurred during the '94-'04 weapons ban. This is only punishing the scores of law biding citizens that responsibly own these firearms for whatever reason they chose. It won't stop the gun black market, the criminals that never obtain weapons in a legal fashion. Let's say this legislation does get passed and as many believe won't effect these types of events from happening, what is the government supposed to do then?

[Seven Wishes2]

Well stated. It is worth noting that mass killings have increased noticeably since the assault weapons ban was lifted.

[slucero]

Interesting reading...

CBO's February 2013 Estimate of the Effects of the Affordable Care Act on Health Insurance Coverage
http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/ ... ffects.pdf

[slucero]

some more interesting info.. This one looks at "how history has treated divergences between a lagging jobs market and a leading indicator (new orders) of the real economy. It appears that since the debt super-cycle began, the real economy has downshifted before the jobs market with CEOs finally giving in to slowing growth and laying people off soon after..."