Christopher Reed on Obama’s State of the Union Address
January 28, 2010 3 Comments
The following is a commentary on last nights State of the Union Address from 2nd Congressional District candidate Christopher Reed.
1/28/10
Cedar Rapids- Christopher Reed, conservative candidate for U. S. House of Representatives for Iowa’s 2nd Congressional district, released the following in response to President Obama’s State of the Union address.
President Obama continues to dazzle the American public with his speaking skills, even while Americans continue to lose their jobs, their homes and their confidence in our federal government.
I am in total agreement with President Obama’s statement, “There is a deficit of trust [in the Government] by the people”. I believe this mistrust stems from a generation of politicians going to Washington DC and not holding true to the principles upon which they campaigned. The time has come for Americans to hold candidates to their words and demand that they are held accountable for their promises.
President Obama talked about the need for additional nuclear plants, more offshore drilling, and bio-fuel and clean coal expansion, which are all solutions to our nation becoming energy independent. But immediately after making this statement Obama pushed the need to pass the “Clean and Safe Climate and Energy Bill”, commonly known as “Cap and Trade”. In my estimation, this bill will do much to eliminate those energy-producing technologies he previously mentioned.
The President made several other statements I disagree with:
- Our President suggested, “People are upset because Washington is not fixing their problems.” I believe it’s not the government’s job to fix people’s problems. It is the people’s job to be responsible for their own lives.
- Obama mentioned he wants to “forgive” college debt for anyone who goes into “public service jobs”. This will only serve to grow an already over-sized government and create even more bureaucracy.
- President Obama stated that Health Care Reform is a “complex issue” and he threatened there will be lost care, employers will shirk their responsibilities, and health care costs will rise if reform is not passed. He also said he understands there is a lot of opposition to the bill, yet he demanded Congress “get it done”. So, even though the majority of Americans do not support the current health care reform being considered, Obama will make sure it happens.
- Mr. Obama said he came to Washington to open the government to the people and keep lobbyists from decision-making positions. Yet he chose to ban C-SPAN from televising health care debates and his cabinet is filled with no less than twelve lobbyists!
- In one breath Mr. Obama promised new incentives to open pathways for small businesses to access loans, but in the next breath he threatened to tax and fine any lending institution that dares to make a profit. True leaders take ownership in the face of adversity, not blame others for a mess they willingly accepted responsibility for.
- Our President continues to blame the previous administration for this country’s economic problems. I believe it is time for Obama to end the blame game and focus his time and energy on fixing our economy and creating jobs.
Overall, our President seems determined to pass blame to others, ignore the will of the people and force-feed his agenda on the American people.
I believe this philosophy is in exact contrast to what has made this country great. The people are the solution to problems, not the government. I believe its time to take back our country and return the control of our government to “We the People” as our constitution states!
For more information about Christopher Reed, visit www.ReedforIowa.com or call Campaign Headquarters @ 319-241-0565
Dave Funk on President Obama’s State of the Union Address
January 28, 2010 by Al Bregar 1 Comment
The following is a press release released by 3rd Congressional District Candidate Dave Funk
Dave Funk, Candidate for Congress; Iowa-03 Responds to SOTU and Unsuccessful Job Creation of 2009
Job creation is the biggest myth in the economy right now. That is, those jobs “created” by the government. Job creation, when done as direct investment by the government in the government, is no more than a long term unfunded mandate on the local level. Here’s why:
Last night President Obama said, “Because of the steps we took, there are about two million Americans working right now who would otherwise be unemployed. 200,000 work in construction and clean energy. 300,000 are teachers and other education workers. Tens of thousands are cops, firefighters, correctional officers, and first responders. And we are on track to add another one and a half million jobs to this total by the end of the year.”
That’s right, jobs created in law enforcement, education and construction (roads & infrastructure). These are government related jobs! Gov. Chet Culver as well has been following the same logic as Leonard Boswell in Iowa and President Obama.
How will the schools pay for these new jobs when their budgets are being cut? How does the police force justify their budgets when the number of officers increased and crime did not? What will construction workers do when their projects are done? All they have done is place financial liabilities that cannot be avoided on state and local governments. There is no way around this burden and now either the greater population suffers because the state and local governments have to find the money to cover it or our state’s lose even more power and are dependent on the welfare of the federal government.
When the government makes a direct investment in jobs that add no economic productivity to the underlying economy it is impossible to turn a job created into more jobs created. When you make a financial investment, your intent is for your money to make you more money. This is the same logic. When the government stimulates job growth it should be creating jobs that will help create more jobs indefinitely.
In Iowa, the government has spent $1.5 billion on 5,336 jobs. These jobs were also in education, law enforcement and infrastructure. The state of Iowa already has had to make a 10% budget cut across the board. Now they’ll either have to find ways of supporting this increase they’ve accrued in annual costs or they will have to cut pay or layoff more to make up for it. And here’s the saddest thing of it all. Even if the state of Iowa or any area were to just lay off the people they hired from the stimulus package they are still stuck paying unemployment benefits. There is no way around this cost burden – this unfunded mandate from the Federal government.
We need to get away from creating jobs for the sake of creating jobs and start pushing private investment in the private sector. This could have been funds managed by private equity and venture capital to grow businesses in high growth industries. It could have been done through private investment tax incentives or simply doing away with capital gains taxes. There were so many ways the government could have created more jobs with that money and they have now borrowed from our children’s and grandchildren’s futures for unsustainable jobs.
The government needs to follow one rule of thumb: The government should NEVER invest money in itself for the sole purpose of growth and job creation. It’s like creating 1,000,000 widgets for a market of 500 people. It’s too much! We cannot let them be stupid with our money anymore. Time to stop the Stupid Spending! Vote these people out!
www.CongressNeedsFunk.com
Filed under Guest Commentary, Politics Tagged with 3rd Congressional District, Dave Funk, President Barack Obama, State of the Union Address