By Richard Billies of www.AllThingsPoliticalToday.com

Barack Obama made a suitably fine presentation in his State of the Union speech. Let’s face it, he is a wonderfully gifted speaker with a flair for timing and phrasing. He brought all of the standard programs and diatribes that are emblematic of his presidency.

Most of the speech was an attempt to frame the template for his upcoming reelection campaign. He obsessed about the marginal tax rates on millionaires. He continued to emphasize the theme of the haves and have-nots. He refers to this populist bent as a “blueprint for an economy built to last” while his opponents call it “class warfare”.

He proposed several small programs that he says will strengthen the economy. These include the elimination of tax incentives for companies to move jobs overseas. He also has brought back the tax credit for college costs proposal that we saw last year. Finally, he wants to expand financial help for creditworthy homeowners looking to refinance their mortgages at lower rates. All of these are admirable and should receive thorough consideration in the Congress if they are deemed important enough to spend resources on. The Cato Institute takes issue with a number of the President’s statement in the video.

Obama believes, as do many Democrats, that the U.S. economy is a zero-sum game. They see it as a pie with only so many slices; if you get a slice, someone else doesn’t. They are blind to the growth of the U.S. economy over the past 50 years. There goal is to expand government and its children: higher taxes and more regulation. Didn’t we witness the collapse of every centrally-planned economy when the Soviet Union system imploded?

Yet, the left continues to crave for the central planning of Big Government. They continue to try to pick winners and losers. They continue to denigrate the fruits of capitalism which has given us a society of “haves and soon-to-haves” according to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) in December and Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels in the Republican response.

So what didn’t Barack Obama talk about in his State of the Union address. Let’s start with the biggie: unemployment. There was no mention of how the high rate of unemployment is going to be brought down. It’s simply too complicated to get an applause line.

There was mention of the clean energy program. The President touted the “thousands” of jobs that have been created. According to his own Department of Energy, we have spent$35 billion while creating a mere 3,500-3,600 jobs.

Of course, no mention was made of the Solyndra debacle. No President is about to advertise his administration’s failures, nor should we expect them to, even though it is a part of the “state” of the Union.

The President referred to his part in saving the auto industry and one million jobs. He didn’t bother to point out that it wasn’t the auto industry that needed saving, just two companies that made bad choices. He also conveniently forgot that both bankruptcy actions were illegal with the legal order of creditors turned on its head. The one million jobs figure comes from General Motors own promotional material for their IPO.

Unions benefited, not the workers but the union organizations, while the bondholders had their savings taken from them. Many of them were retired auto workers who had invested their money for retirement. By the way, Chrysler will no longer be an American corporation once their Italian owners buy up 20% more stock.

There was no mention of the Keystone XL Pipeline and its 20,000 potential jobs that might be lost because of the President’s attempt to curry favor with the environmental lobby. There was no mention of the rising cost of gasoline prices.

And of course, there was simply no mention of the staggering national debt that has now surpassed 100% of our yearly economic output. Nor did he even touch on the series of deficits that he has presided over with very little cuts in spending. Without the growth in the economy, we will go the way of other failed nation-states.

Among other no-shows in the speech were the illegality of his appointments to the Consumer Financial Protection Board and the National Labor Relations Board; the Senate’s failure to pass a budget for 1,000 days under the leadership of his own party; the high costs that his additional regulations bring with them; his party’s opposition to free trade agreements; the fraudulent elections in Russia; the ongoing collapse of the Euro; warnings about his decision to slash defense spending; the remaining challenges in Afghanistan; and the violence that has erupted in Iraq after the departure of U.S. troops.

Why would he want to talk frankly about the challenges that we will face in the coming year? After all, the Republicans will be talking about them as soon as today.

Richard Billies is founder and purveyor of  AllThingsPoliticalToday.com  and a frequent SNSPost contributor.  The opinions expressed in this article are those of Mr. Billies and not necessarily those of the SNSPost or its staff.

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