The real state of the union

I saved this for last, so it would have top billing throughout the day. I'll be back tonight to offer running commentary during the speech itself.

Daschle and Pelosi did our party right, coming out swinging yesterday in their State of the Union "pre-buttal". Some excerpts:

Daschle: The state of our union today is anxious. The triple threat of war, terrorism, and recession are combining to make Americans unsure about their future, and unclear about the course our nation is taking.

[...]

Now, you won’t hear any hesitation or uncertainty in the President’s speech tomorrow night. And we don’t need a crystal ball to predict he’ll use a lot of words like “bold” and “strong” and “good.” President Bush says a lot of the right things, and he says them well. But a speech doesn’t equal a solution, and a sound bite is no substitute for a strategy.

[...]

So far, the President’s been saying all the right things - but doing very few of them. In the days and weeks after September 11th, this Administration was clear and commanding in its leadership. But on just about every other issue before or since, it has been anything but. Today, what we are getting from the White House are confused signals instead of clear direction; slogans instead of solutions; posturing instead of progress.

There’s a name for all this: it’s called a credibility gap. Unfortunately, it’s nothing new in Washington. History is full of politicians whose rhetoric is out of step with reality, who promise something and then fail to deliver. But the Bush Administration offers a credibility gap with a new twist: this is a White House that promises one thing knowing full well it is delivering another

Pelosi: Last year, President Bush told the nation in his State of the Union address that his economic plan could be summarized in a single word: jobs. Unfortunately, his record could be summed up in one phrase: loss of jobs. Since President Bush took office two years ago, a total of 2.3 million private-sector jobs have been lost -- the worst record of job creation for any President since the end of World War II. There are now 8.6 million unemployed Americans. The unemployment rate is at 6 percent, an eight-year high. People are hurting and families are struggling. With Americans out of work, children are being left behind. We must create jobs now.

[...]

For two years, the President has had numerous opportunities to put this economy back on track. But the Administration has chosen to reject every single economic option but one: tax cuts for the wealthy. For two years, America has given the President the benefit of the doubt on his economic plan. Today, the American people have seen very few benefits, and have a lot more doubt. Now, after two years, in addition to record job loss, we have the lowest rate of business investment in 50 years, middle class incomes are down for the first time in 10 years, and we have the highest poverty rate in eight years.

The full text of the remarks is here. It's good reading.

Posted January 28, 2003 08:52 AM | Comments (93)