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Tuesday, January 29, 2008
State of the Union, Pt. 1 -- Editorial Reax
Below are excerpts of editorial responses to the president's State of the Union address last night, with a focus on economic and fiscal issues, drawn from some of the nation's leading print and electronic publications...
Daniel Gross, in Slate:
The only legacy moment came when he discussed his desire to make permanent the temporary tax cuts enacted in the first term. Not surprisingly, it rang a bit hollow. He told Congress that making the tax cuts, due to expire in 2010, permanent today would go a long way toward soothing frayed economic nerves... This is, of course, a fantasy confined to a dwindling number of office suites in the White House, the Wall Street Journal editorial page, and certain time slots on CNBC. On the long and growing list of factors weighing on the economy—stagnant job growth, the housing mess, problems with bond insurers, the self-inflicted wounds of the financial sector, a debased currency—the prospect that tax rates are going to revert to 1990s levels in three years is pretty far down.
Washington Post:
President Bush took office with so much derision for the outgoing president that critics defined his attitude toward governing as ABC -- "anything but Clinton." He would not play "small ball," but as he delivered his final State of the Union address last night, Bush increasingly appeared to be adopting some of his predecessor's approach... His requests were fairly small-bore. He asked for $300 million for scholarships for inner-city students to attend private schools, proposed allowing troops to transfer unused education benefits to relatives, and said he will meet with Canadian and Mexican leaders in New Orleans.
New York Times:
Had Mr. Bush been doing his job right just in the last few weeks, he could have used this speech to celebrate a genuinely bipartisan agreement on a sound economic stimulus plan. In addition to the tax rebates agreed on already between the White House and the House, Mr. Bush could have announced sensible proposals for extending unemployment benefits and a temporary increase in food stamps for the most vulnerable citizens.
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If Mr. Bush had let compassion and good sense trump ideology, he would have been able to use last night's speech to celebrate the expansion of health insurance to tens of millions of children with working parents. Mr. Bush vetoed an expansion of the S-chip program, and he did not even agree to pay for all of the existing coverage because he thought a relative handful of parents might switch from private to public insurance if they were offered government assistance to buy it.
Jared Bernstein, in American Prospect:
As I listened to the president call for permanent tax cuts, it felt like a tired ritual, a feckless plea for one more chance to give the goodies up to his people before he leaves the stage. I know the president and his team will be around for a while longer, but amid the stultifying air of this ritual, the repetition of this and other tired mantras, I felt something new and exciting: the sense that the Bush era is winding down. There's a flicker of light at the end of the tunnel, and it's truly radiant.
Washington Times:
[F]acing low approval ratings and a Democrat-controlled Congress, the president kept new initiatives modest, including $300 million to help inner-city children in failing schools attend alternative institutions, a measure to allow U.S. military members to share G.I. bill benefits with spouses and children, an effort to buy crops from farmers in developing countries, and more federal funding for research on adult stem cells.
Newsday:
The speech lived up to expectations, which were low. Bush bowed to political reality by eschewing any ambitious new initiatives of the magnitude of Social Security reform and immigration overhaul, failed initiatives from previous years. He has neither the political capital nor the compliant Congress he would need to deliver anything big or controversial. So Bush urged Washington to trust the American people, made a belated bid for bipartisanship and pushed small-bore proposals - for instance, passage of his economic stimulus plan and curbing pork-barrel spending.
Posted by Dana Chasin
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