Ten Key Quotes From President Obama's SOTU speech

I know some posters won't like this article, but instead of disliking right away -----stop----take your time to read the whole thing, then think about it -----then reread and think about it some more before commenting in the negative. 

Ten Key Quotes From President Obama's State of the Union Address

• Guy Benson 
  Political Editor, Townhall.com

Feb 13, 2013 12:01 AM EST

President Obama rehashed many familiar themes this evening, calling on Congress to act on a host of issues -- and vowing to take unilateral executive action if they fail to sufficiently address his priorities.  A few passages were newsworthy: Obama denounced the looming sequester cuts, voiced support for "modest" Medicare reforms, called for another stimulus, resurrected cap and trade, pushed comprehensive immigration reform, backed a national hike in the minimum wage, announced another major troop draw-down in Afghanistan, and insisted that Congress allow up-or-down votes on a series of gun control measures.  As is his habit, the president was not especially conciliatory in his remarks.  Here are ten quotes from the text of the address that merit further scrutiny:

(1) The sequester:

We are more than halfway towards the goal of $4 trillion in deficit reduction that economists say we need to stabilize our finances. Now we need to finish the job. And the question is: How? In 2011, Congress passed a law 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. These sudden, harsh, arbitrary cuts would jeopardize our military readiness, they'd devastate priorities like education and energy and medical research. They would certainly slow our recovery and cost us hundreds of thousands of jobs. And that's why Democrats, Republicans, business leaders, and economists have already said that these cuts -- known here in Washington as "the sequester'' -- are a really bad idea.  

Though he tries to drop the sequester into Congress' lap, it is simply a fact that this package of automatic spending cuts was conceptualized and proposed by the White House.  President Obama signed it into law as part of 2011's debt deal -- and yet the spending reductions are still lingering, unrealized.  The president has been all over the map on this issue, threatening to vetoany attempt to replace the cuts, the averring that the cuts "will not happen."  Obama now insists that some of the already agreed-to cuts be replaced with additional tax increases, which is unacceptable.  He has not offered his own specific plan about how to undo the sequester.

(2) "Not one dime" to deficits:

Tonight I'll lay out additional proposals that are fully paid for and fully consistent with the budget framework both parties agreed to just 18 months ago. Let me repeat: Nothing I'm proposing tonight should increase our deficit by a single dime. It is not a bigger government we need, but a smarter government that sets priorities and invests in broad-based growth.  

This turn of phrase is a major red flag.  After all, this president pledged to halve the deficit by the end of his first term and failed spectacularly.  He also employed nearly this precise formulation while pitching Obamacare, all the way down to the "dime" verbiage.  With that program's cost estimate continually rising, and with some of the phony pay-for gimmicks being stripped away, the massive program will fuel deficits and debt for years to come.  The president has no credibility on this issue, which the American people understand.  Also note the weasel-word, "should," in the excerpt above.  Ahem:

(3) Medicare reform and health care costs:

And that's 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. (APPLAUSE) Already, the Affordable Care Act is helping to slow the growth of health care costs. (APPLAUSE) And -- and the reforms I'm proposing go even further. We'll reduce taxpayer subsidies to prescription drug companies and ask more from the wealthiest seniors.

To his marginal credit, the president signaled a willingness to make "modest" reforms to Medicare, which is the top driver of our long term debt.  He mentioned means testing as one option, but didn't elaborate any further.  Unfortunately, Medicare needs systemic reform and already incorporates a fair amount of means testing, so we'll need many more details on the president's plan to evaluate it.  Don't hold your breath.  His assertion that Obamacare is "helping to slow the growth of healthcare costs" is patently false, on both the family and federal level.  (Remember, Obama promised to bend the cost curve down on federal spending and lower premiums by $2500 per family.  The opposite has happened.  The CBO's recent report anticipates national healthcare spending to explode by 94 percent over the next decade).

(4) The return of the carbon tax:

I urge this Congress to get together, 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 protect future generations, I will.  

This is an echo of 2009's cap and trade misadventure, the liberal dream that couldn't even pass Congress when Democrats controlled both houses.  Steven Hayward has done excellent work on this issue, explicating why even if the United States adopted these crippling "green" standards and taxes, it wouldn't do a thing to help the planet.  Ludicrously unrealistic goals, oppressive new energy taxes on all households, chasing jobs off our shores...all for an undetectable environmental benefit.  This is a lose-lose.  Obama recognizes that there's no chance this sort of legislation will pass even the Democrat-held Senate, so he's setting the table to (once again) bypass the people's branch through executive orders and regulations.

Read the rest of them here:

 http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2013/02/13/ten-quotes-from-president-obamas-state-of-the-union-address-n1511234