I have to say that our president gives a good speech. He has a talent for injecting  humor in to his talk, which makes even his critics smile. He reminded us later that when he took office, this county was in the mist of 2 on going wars, deeply in debt and at the start of a major recession. Later he reminded us that at the end of 2000 this county had a 200 Billion dollar surplus. Then 8 years later when he got to Washington, we were 8 trillion dollars in the red. Although his administration has added an additional 1 billion to the national debt problem  it had also staved off a more serious depression.

Mr. Obama admitted that he knows that the people of this county are losing faith in their government and their faith in his ability to handle the problems..He knew people are angry and frustrated and in dismay over this past year. He spoke about the bank bail out and related that much of the money has been re-paid

My take on that is the reason the bank repaid the money was to get government out of their business especially when they were put on notice about the insane bonuses handed out to people who caused a lot of the problems   that the tax payers and the bank themselves. faced this last year

Mr. Obama did relate that there were a few good things that had come out this first year. One fact was that the premiums on the Cobra health plan cost less.(65 % cheaper).. When you lose your job you get a change to sign up for this health insurance, but the premiums were too high for most people who were in reduced circumstances. Another good thing was there had been no new taxes on anybody and there has supposed to have been 25 different tax cuts that helped  95 % of families.

He claims that jobs are his #1 focus for 2010 While 2 million jobs have been created he wants to add at least 1.5 million more. He also later  remarked , that  7 million jobs had   been lost over the last 10 years.

He seemed to be aware that while income had declined, Expenses had increased for the American people.
He should just ask the senior citizen who are on what they call a "fixed income". Income gets fixed when you lose your usefulness in the labor market What is it the song used to say." Nobody wants you when you are old and grey" While  expenses, especially cost of health related expenses like medicine, insurance and doctor bills just keep going up. Then there is up keep on your car, with higher gasoline and insurance costs Electric and heat for your home are  right at the top of the list for inflationary costs. You can stop driving your car but it is hard to stop using electric lights and heat for your homes.

　One idea he mentioned was to quit giving businesses tax breaks for hiring people in other countries. Bring the jobs home. I say amen to that.

He spoke highly of small business, called them the main engine for jobs. Proposed several new ideas for help for them. His calls for America to become a leader in research and development into clean energy, new nuclear energy plants, Bio-Fuel and cleaner coal, energy and climate. He thought that trade and export needs to be boosted so that it would create jobs here. His key to ending poverty was education. . I like what he said about a "World Class Education"  how it could help pull people up out of poverty. But when your kids have to get jobs as soon as they can , to help support the family, education takes a back seat to eating regularly.

He has promised to start watching the spending and proposes a freeze on spending for 3 years. That I would like to see, but seriously doubt Congress will give up their so called "ear marks" Wants to publish these expenses on a public web site for all to see. They probably will shut down the internet before they have their wheeling  and dealing made open to the public. Reminds me of the old saying, "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

On the whole the speech was pretty good. Only thing negative I would say was that his speech was like a blast of a shot gun  It scattered pellets broadly in an effort to covered a lot of different things. Seemed like he was trying not to leave any of the people wants or needs out But it sounded like he was making a lot of promises to too many different groups of people. It was like unto a good pep rally for a lot of desperate, anxiety ridden Americans , so they might
get a glimmer of hope, that things could still improve, if they can just hold on a little while more.

His use of Executive Orders to put in a Fiscal Commission to help with this country’s debt,  may be based on good intentions but once again the people we elected, were left out of the process because Congress had already voted the idea down.  The idea of which bothers me because  is that either the Congress is not concerned about our rising debt  or they all need to be replaced with some body who is.

I agree that the law concerning "Pay As You Go" needs to be back in place. That would apply to us individuals as well as congress. In fact all us need to quit using banks and credit card for 3 years our selves.. Bet that would get the message to those legalized bandits that prey on the hard working people of America

　We can all agree on banning Lobbyist from messing with us on behalf of various businesses. But maybe we should be punishing those who take the gift and bribes from them when they are suppose to be working for us. If you had a business and an employees who was getting a salary from you acted like some of our Congress people act for their own self interest, we would not hesitate to fire them.

Hopefully, Congress will take note that President Obama did bring up a most scary ruling from our Supreme Court that recently allowed foreigners to donate to our elections opening the door for some high level of interference from other countries seeking their own ends. Just what this country needs, some more people trying to buy the elections.

You are welcome to comment on any of the above.
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