Dear America,

"Isn't there a limit on how many times we raise the debt limit?"

that's my girl

just something to think about as we set out, today, pondering the thoughts and posture of a president.

For starters, I was pretty close now, wasn't I? (referring to my best guess on the king's speech)

Only a guy proposing we continue to spend over one trillion dollars more than what we take in could figure out a way to get away with it.  sure, he started out mighty fine:

"From our first days as a nation, we have put our faith in free markets and free enterprise as the engine of America's wealth and prosperity. More than citizens of any other country, we are rugged individualists, a self-reliant people with a healthy skepticism of too much government.

But there has always been another thread running throughout our history - a belief that we are all connected; and that there are some things we can only do together, as a nation."

that is a pretty big BUT there, Mr. President.  You know what they say about using the word "but" -- it negates everything that was previously said...and let's move on...

"For much of the last century, our nation found a way to afford these investments and priorities with the taxes paid by its citizens. As a country that values fairness, wealthier individuals have traditionally born a greater share of this burden than the middle class or those less fortunate. This is not because we begrudge those who've done well - we rightly celebrate their success. Rather, it is a basic reflection of our belief that those who have benefited most from our way of life can afford to give a bit more back."

So all things being fair now, "as a country that values fairness," the "wealthier individuals have traditionally born a greater share of this burden" -- giving us a moment when our president truly values tradition.  And not done, he makes the assertion... well, it's the price to pay for being the ones who have "benefited most from our way of life."  Which is it, Mr. President, do we teach our children to be self-reliant and prosper, or do we teach them that when they do (rest on their own self-reliance, create prosperity, and share it, ultimately, of their own free will) be prepared to give more of that fair share, cause that's only fair?  Where do you preserve and support the genuine motivation and benefits anchored by tradition steeped in self-reliance?

"...we lost our way in the decade that followed. We increased spending dramatically for two wars and an expensive prescription drug program - but we didn't pay for any of this new spending. Instead, we made the problem worse with trillions of dollars in unpaid-for tax cuts - tax cuts that went to every millionaire and billionaire in the country; tax cuts that will force us to borrow an average of $500 billion every year over the next decade"

Thanks for the drone hit, Mr. President...indeed, because we have sooooooooooo many millionaires and billionaires running around -- and don't you just love how the two are always put together, like, what's the difference?  It's all the same thing.  They are crooks getting away with murder, while women and children are dying out there.  You forgot to point out, that in the last ten years, our government's annual expenditures have ballooned from 1.8 Trillion in 2000 to 3.4 Trillion by 2010.  While the last three years, under your presidency -- bearing in mind that for this year alone, the CBO projects a 1.6 Trillion dollar deficit -- the national debt has gone from 10 Trillion to 14 Trillion.

We are adding to the population of retirees everyday now.  Baby Boomers are no longer booming.  The annual revenue from our current bunch of yahoos no longer supports the 60% of the Federal Budget that currently pays the bills for retirement benefits, as well as a host of miscellaneous entitlements we'll just stipulate for "the poor."  If you add the payment for just our debt service to the bottom line and do the math, only about 10% of our "revenue" is left for discretionary spending.  That's it.  Yes, they say you are brilliant, BUT let me remind you, it will never work out the way it does in your head, Mr. President, for your numbers do not add up...3.7 out with 2.6 in, equals a 1.1 deficit. simple simon.

"And so, by the time I took office, we once again found ourselves deeply in debt and unprepared for a Baby Boom retirement that is now starting to take place. When I took office, our projected deficit was more than $1 trillion. On top of that, we faced a terrible financial crisis and a recession that, like most recessions, led us to temporarily borrow even more. In this case, we took a series of emergency steps that saved millions of jobs, kept credit flowing, and provided working families extra money in their pockets. It was the right thing to do, but these steps were expensive, and added to our deficits in the short term.

So that's how our fiscal challenge was created. This is how we got here."

wow. dripping with arrogance...and after growing our federal government ten percent (fact), and throwing in a failed stimulus package, what I did has nothing to do with it...and with a straight face tells us:

"We have to live within our means, reduce our deficit, and get back on a path that will allow us to pay down our debt."

Seriously?  Do you even know what living within your means is?  He says this knowing his budget exceeds the means by over a trillion dollars. (This is about the time I believe we lost the second in command, Mr. Joe "can't keep my eyes open a second longer" Biden....snore)

"By the end of this decade, the interest we owe on our debt could rise to nearly $1 trillion. Just the interest payments"

And yet, you are only proposing 4 trillion in cuts/new taxes over the next twelve years.  such a pretty web we weave...
...while he continues to rattle off all the things we like, but really don't like having to pay for, and in the middle of it he says this:

"Most of us, regardless of party affiliation, believe that we should have a strong military and a strong defense."

Should?  Most of us, those of us who respect America's Constitution, recognize that a strong military isn't just an option on the table --  it is paramount to our nation's security,  mandated by our forefathers, and considered non-negotiable by we the people. It isn't lumped in somewhere between food stamps and early retirement benefits. just fyi.

Getting to a bottom, bottom line, "Those are both worthy goals for us to achieve. But the way this plan achieves those goals would lead to a fundamentally different America than the one we've known throughout most of our history."

hmmm where have I heard that before? 

"A 70% cut to clean energy. A 25% cut in education. A 30% cut in transportation. Cuts in college Pell Grants that will grow to more than $1,000 per year. That's what they're proposing. These aren't the kind of cuts you make when you're trying to get rid of some waste or find extra savings in the budget. These aren't the kind of cuts that Republicans and Democrats on the Fiscal Commission proposed. These are the kind of cuts that tell us we can't afford the America we believe in. And they paint a vision of our future that's deeply pessimistic."

and then he simply goes off -- throwing everything on the wall -- a game of paint ball has got nothing on how he proceeded to riddle the right with attacks left, right and up the middle.  Bridges collapsing, no college education, grandma literally getting thrown under the bus...not pretty.  not even the truth.  it's just what radicals do.

and partisan politics in Washington lives on to see another ugly day.

"Worst of all, this is a vision that says even though America can't afford to invest in education or clean energy; even though we can't afford to care for seniors and poor children, we can somehow afford more than $1 trillion in new tax breaks for the wealthy. Think about it."

no, you think about it.  think about what you say, Mr. President.  this is acting presidential?  this is statesmanship?  this is meeting in the middle?  these are words from a leader for all Americans?  this is how low you want to go?

wait for it....

"The America I know is generous and compassionate; a land of opportunity and optimism. We take responsibility for ourselves and each other; for the country we want and the future we share. We are the nation that built a railroad across a continent and brought light to communities shrouded in darkness. We sent a generation to college on the GI bill and saved millions of seniors from poverty with Social Security and Medicare. We have led the world in scientific research and technological breakthroughs that have transformed millions of lives.

This is who we are. This is the America I know. We don't have to choose between a future of spiraling debt and one where we forfeit investments in our people and our country. To meet our fiscal challenge, we will need to make reforms. We will all need to make sacrifices. But we do not have to sacrifice the America we believe in. And as long as I'm President, we won't."

doink, der it is... the walking contradiction reigns supreme again. halleluja.

and tops it off with this little tidbit:

"If, by 2014, our debt is not projected to fall as a share of the economy - or if Congress has failed to act - my plan will require us to come together and make up the additional savings with more spending cuts and more spending reductions in the tax code."

"require us to come together"   What is he not saying here?  Is he purposely planning on stripping Congress of their powers -- specifically, as it pertains to regulating taxation?

"This larger debate we're having, about the size and role of government, has been with us since our founding days. And during moments of great challenge and change, like the one we're living through now, the debate gets sharper and more vigorous. That's a good thing...

But no matter what we argue or where we stand, we've always held certain beliefs as Americans. We believe that in order to preserve our own freedoms and pursue our own happiness, we can't just think about ourselves. We have to think about the country that made those liberties possible. We have to think about our fellow citizens with whom we share a community. And we have to think about what's required to preserve the American Dream for future generations..

This sense of responsibility - to each other and to our country - this isn't a partisan feeling. It isn't a Democratic or Republican idea. It's patriotism."

You can take the organizer out of the community, but you can't take the community out of the organizer.

All in all, for nearly the entire 45 minutes, you pretty much pounce all over the right, one way or another, even injecting class warfare as a main theme; and yet, you still believe you can end on a high note...you sir, must think you are a pretty big deal to think you can really get away with that.

You still don't get it.

We are a country based on individual freedoms, individual liberties, with individual dreams putting individual self-reliance to the test; we are not endowed by our government, but by our Maker.  Sure, collectively, you have it right, in part -- it does make us the strongest, free-est, rich-est, kind-est nation in the world -- and it has everything and nothing to do with the "millionaires and billionaires" and everything and nothing to do with the collective.   think about it. 

Make it a Good Day, G

Definition of Marxism:  "The political and economic ideas of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles as developed into a system of thought that gives class struggle a primary role in leading society from bourgeois democracy under capitalism to a socialist society and thence to communism," from The American Heritage Dictionary.

think about it.

patriotism?  where?