Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address will air tomorrow night and it is hard to predict how he will approach it. Many of his liberal counterparts are frustrated with the possibility of him positioning himself in the center of the aisle, a complete contradiction to where he was positioned during last year’s speech. If he placates to the right, it may be what conservatives want to hear, but it will also make him look like a man with no backbone in his beliefs. After passing his health care law, after the stimulus packages, after his intention to give all illegal aliens health care, obviously accepting them as American citizens, which our tax money would pay for, after all the actions he’s made and the ideas he entertains, how can he stand in the middle of the aisle after being so radical and destructive on the left only one year ago, up until the moment Americans voted and expressed to him in a united scream that we are not interested in what he is selling. In fact, if he does not stand behind that podium and promote how important his health care law is, how important the money he wastes is, and how brilliant every action he has taken so far is, then I would venture to say that any productive ideas submitted by the right, which he chooses to employ would be an admission of how wrong his direction has been for two years. One example we must never forget of how pliable and adaptive his beliefs are is the decision he had made to extend the Bush tax cuts across the entire board. I think it is great that he did it, but not extending them was one of his biggest campaign promises leading up to his presidency. The Barack Obama we may see tomorrow night, if he does happen to tread in the middle of the aisle and acknowledge some conservative ideas, is not the Barack Obama that the majority of Americans had elected in 2008.
“I don’t think he should have this tone that if he rolls on his back the new Congress is going to rub his belly. A lot of these guys coming to town campaigned against everything this president wants to achieve. The president needs to take an aggressive approach to make clear he’s not going to roll over.”
Rep. Anthony Weiner
Following the State of the Union Address, Rep. Paul Ryan will be delivering the Republican response. GOP leaders tout him as a leading Conservative thinker on federal spending. He is currently the chairman of the House Budget Committee, but the House is expected to vote to grant him an unprecedented amount of power to force spending cuts for the rest of this fiscal year. This power will allow Ryan a unilateral ability to set an overall spending level for the rest of the year, usually handled by a full panel.
1,694.1 miles to go.
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