The Virginian-Pilot
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Members of the Hampton Roads' delegation to the U.S. Senate and House had different takes on President Barack Obama's State of the Union address on Tuesday night.
Not surprisingly, the reactions generally went according to the party lines.
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Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va.
“I believe the president struck the right tone tonight, and I welcome the bipartisan effort to find common ground to move us forward.
“Three steps are required to get our nation back on the right track:
“We must curtail federal spending, we need comprehensive tax reform, and we also must adopt an innovation and growth agenda. It will require all three of those elements, because no single one of them alone will get the job done.”
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U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., did not offer a comment after the speech Tuesday night.
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Rep. Scott Rigell, R-2nd District
“I do believe he failed to convey to the American people and to the Congress the severity of our fiscal situation. I do not feel he fairly communicated the risk that we are taking as a country. … I wish the president had addressed that in a stronger way."
“I was pleased to hear some emphasis on reducing regulation. But we’re going to need to hear about the substance of that.”
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Rep. Bobby Scott, D-3rd District
“I thought it was an excellent speech. I think his priorities are the right priorities – the need to create jobs, using education and innovation as a support for future jobs. His support for health care.
“He reminded us of the financial mess we’re in. We knew when we passed the tax cuts last year that we were going to have to pay for it. It’s not going to be easy.
“We’ve already started the debate on health care. We expect to reauthorize No Child Left Behind.
“The budget is going to be a significant challenge. I think everyone in Congress recognizes that.”
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Rep. Randy Forbes, R-4th District
“I thought it was interesting as you look at the floor tonight. We had a new speaker. A new tone. … But everyone recognizes that the future is not going to be determined by what we heard tonight but what we do tomorrow.
“There are things the president talked about that we are not going to support. When he talked about freezing spending, that’s not enough. We’re going to have to reduce spending.
“You try to find the things where you can get agreement. … He talked about reforming the tax code, he talked about reforming tax rates and talked about reducing the deficit. And when he talked about reining in regulations. Many of those things we’ve been talking about for years.”
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Despite incarcerating tens
Despite incarcerating tens of millions of Americans and spending hundreds of billions of dollars warehousing Americans, our streets are still drug ridden.
Meanwhile the war on drugs is creating problems of its own - broken families, increased poverty, wasted tax dollars, prison overcrowding, racial disparities, and eroded civil liberties. The United States now incarcerates more of its citizens in both absolute and per capita terms than any other country in the world, with less than 5% of the world's population but nearly 25% of the world's prison population.
There are many drug war programs that are ripe for cuts. The evidence shows that the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant program, the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, and many other drug
What are we to believe anymore?
Mr. Obama "gave" billions of dollars to corporations that had operated in such a way as to put them in danger of filing for bankruptcy &/or closing operations. No restrictions were placed on using this money, & reports show that more jobs were created overseas than here. Wouldn't the money have been better used to create jobs here to improve the nat'l infrastructure, develop alternate energy sources, etc., that he is now encouraging? He pressured his party to pass a health bill that few, if any, had read completely, thereby not knowing what was in it before the vote. Now he welcomes suggestions to improve it. He wants to work on the illegal immigrant problem, but won't enforce the laws already on the books. Confusion still reigns.
my concern
President Obama seemed to frame American exceptionalism with the idea that it was the government that makes the United States special. I would agree to the extent that as orginally designed the US federal government stays out of the way of the individual. It's the American people, aided by a system which allows them to achieve their dreams, that is special. The way President Obama spoke, he seems to believe all good ideas must originate from the government. Government didn't invent the cotton gin, the light bulb, the automobile or the steam engine.
Necessity is the mother of invention, not government.
News of the Obvious
The tagline for this article; "Local lawmakers split on party lines over State of the Union."
Really?! Get the heck out of here! :-)
what a mess
what a mess mr obama has put this country in. why , i remember just 2-1/2 years ago when george w bush was president we had balanced budgets every year, zero unemployment, the banks were in good shape, health care costs were cheap, and there was no home mortgage mess. well, thats what fox news wants me to think !
Speech comments
I thought people commenting here would do so on the speech. His speech was very Vanilla. He had to be cautious on who/what he attacked. The House holds the purse strings. Prepping for his campaign later this year.
No Child Left Behind
I didn’t know much about it so I Googled. I still don’t but it made some strange bedfellows. The first site I looked at said it was supported by Bush and Ted Kennedy and is currently opposed by the teacher’s union and “heartily despised” by senate republicans. I think I will just default to “If it is controversial and Bobby Scott likes it, I don’t.”
Bush NAMED it for Teddy K
I remember news coverage of this plainly. The bill was practically named for Kennedy (all his bios list it as one of HIS biggest achievements.) Initially NCLB was seen as a genuine bipartisan domestic policy achievement. The House passed it 381-41, with more Dem votes than Republican. Teddy was hailed as a "master politician" who partnered with the Bush White House and personally steered NCLB through the Senate. Then, after the mutual bipartisan self-congratulations of the speakers at the signing ceremony, Teddy went out on the steps of the building and launched into a flaming tirade about how inadequate the bill was and criticized Bush for all the parts Teddy didn't like. Now THATs old school bipartisanship for you.
My take on our situation
Our country's soul has been sold for a few dollars more and for the benefit of a minute few here. As custodians of the public trust, we've allowed our "professional politicians" to become the prostitutes of special interests. And year after year we continue to vote the same cast of characters back into office to continue prostituting their own interests and the masters they submit to.
We have to change our current representation. It starts with a simple and still bold concept; represent the interests of the American people first, without distortion, without politics, without special interest. Will this ever happen? Only if YOU want a truly honest government that serves its citizens first.
Otherwise, no, and we will fail as a nation...
Well Said
That's really the bottom line on the state of the nation.