2015 SOTU Preview

Ken AshfordClass Warfare, Economy & Jobs & Deficit, Obama & AdministrationLeave a Comment

They’re called “Democrat pipe dreams” by some.  I’m referring to Obama’s plans which he will raise in his 2015 State of the Union speech tonight.

Top among those plans is his $60 billion pitch for free two-year community college tuition and $175 billion in new tax benefits for the middle class.  How to pay for that?  In a very West Wing-ish way: he would raise $320 billion over the next 10 years through a capital gains tax hike and new bank fees.

Of course, legislation of this sort is DOA when it comes to the Republican-controlled Congress.  Republicans will want to cut taxes (for the rich) because the economy is good.  Just like the wanted to cut taxes (for the rich) when the economy was bad.

Since Obama surely knows his plans will go nowhere, many say this is just a ploy for 2016 — to get Republicans on the record as being against tax hikes for the rich and education for the middle class.  In other words, they don’t care about income inequality.

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A cynical ploy by Obama?  Maybe, although when Republicans in Congress vote over 50 times to repeal Obamacare (which also has no chance of becoming a law in the Obama administration), nobody seems to mind.  And they do this even though Obamacare is clearly working.

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Still, Obama should take a victory lap with this State of the Union.  The crisis that overwhelmed the economy in 2008 has largely passed. Unemployment is down to 5.6 percent. This has been the longest period of sustained private-sector job growth on record. The economy is growing at a rate we haven’t seen since 2003.  Obama’s approval ratings are up, people are more satisfied with the economy than they have been for the past decade, and just seven percent say jobs are the most important problem facing the country, the lowest number since October 2008.

Even a Republican pollster declared that America was busting out of its Recession Era slump.

We are, at this moment, far and away the strongest major economy in the world.  By far.

In much of the country, you can buy gas for less than $2 per gallon, which is, honestly, ridiculous.

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Unfortunately, while the state of the union is strong, the political climate sucks.  We’re just too polarized to get things done.

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Oh, well.

P.S.  Not really relevant to the SOTU, I suppose, but we’re moving westward and slightly southward.

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