Bush State of The Union Proposals Inadequate

As Expected, Bush offered nothing new in the annual State of the Empire speech.

Sure, it was toned down somewhat because of the political changes in Washington, but the overall message was the same. There were the same tired proposals, the same beating of the chest, the same message on Iraq, and the same George Bush- out of touch with reality.

He could have simply used the same speech from last year... this weeks speech seems almost identical.

He proposes a goal of reducing gasoline use by 20% within 10 years? What??? This guy does not seem to get it, even after all of this time. It's almost as if he is frozen in time, unable to adjust & adapt to what is happening in the world. He simply does not have the sense of urgency that is needed to get anything done. That 20% proposal is completely inadequate. But then again, this falls in line with what I have always been saying about this administration. I have always said, that as long as this administration was in the White House there would be no serious progress on energy policy. A group that is allied so closely with the oil industry will be unlikely to propose anything that might harm that industry (or the gifts & political donations that they get from it).

What we need is a plan that could get us off of oil within 10-15 years... how about a goal of cutting gasoline use in cars and small private trucks by 80% within that time period? Now THAT would have been a proposal. After 6 years of being in office the Bush administration has done NOTHING of substance to develop alternative energy, even when it is crucial to national security and important to the environment.... 2 big issues facing the country that could be dealt with from the same alternative fuel strategy.

And he wants to increase the size of the Army and Marines by 92, 000 troops within the next few years? 92,000 more soldiers is still not enough to deal with the demands of a country that desperately wants to hold on to its position as the Worlds Police Force. The U.S. needs an increase of at least 200,000 troops, just to maintain a good defense of the U.S. and to establish a normal rotation system. There should be at least 7 or 8 more fighting divisions in the Army and a few more Marine Expeditionary units. The U.S. must go back to a more "defense" oriented posture, and should have a military large enough to handle 2 major wars simultaneously or 3 smaller wars like Iraq simultaneously if needed. Today, the U.S. has few options if troops were needed to defend the U.S. from an attack. U.S. troops are busy fighting for someone else's country instead of being in a position to defend home.

I really started to get a headache when the speech turned to the issue of healthcare.
The Bush & Co. plan for dealing with the current Health Care mess? More tax cuts.
That should have convinced anyone still on the fence that this administration and this President are completely detached from reality. Bush himself may be on something.
Amy Goodman and guest Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, let the hot air out of Bush's nonsensical Healthcare proposal. What is needed is comprehensive Healthcare coverage for everyone- at least for those who are not insured. There also needs to be a safety net in place for those people who are under-insured.

Basically, Bush & Co. is giving the middle finger to those 44+ million Americans with no healthcare and the millions more than that who are under-insured. He wants to leave it up to the private sector and to the market. They will do everything possible to avoid having a government sponsored Universal health system or anything close to it.

And I didn't hear much of anything at all about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the need to rebuild the Gulf Coast. What happened to all of those promises?