Washington, D.C. - In listening to the President's State of the Union speech tonight, I was struck by the pattern of missed opportunities and disappointing outcomes that characterizes many of the President's policies over the past three years. In 2001, President Bush pledged to work in a bipartisan manner to encourage dialogue and build consensus toward addressing critical domestic priorities for our nation: increase federal support for education; repair and rebuild our nation's schools; strengthen Social Security and Medicare; enact a real Patients' Bill of Rights; and provide responsible and targeted tax cuts that stimulate economic growth and employment, but preserve fiscal discipline. These issues are important to the American people. Over the last three years, reality has failed to match rhetoric.
President Bush squandered his chance in 2003 to put his full support behind an education law that he signed into law in 2002. He asked students, teachers, and school leadership to put their all behind compliance with the No Child Left Behind Act, then failed to provide the resources that he agreed they needed. This Administration failed to support efforts to increase this funding, which would have brought Hawaii an additional $21 million for disadvantaged children. We owe our students more than encouraging words and rhetoric to help them succeed.
The President proposes making his ill-conceived tax cuts permanent across-the board. President Bush's tax cuts -- with the majority of benefits accruing to wealthiest Americans -- have created an enormous federal deficit and negatively impacted state and local governments and public services. The Bush Administration's irresponsible fiscal policies have led to an explosion of the national debt and leave the hard budget choices and a mountain of debt to future generations. Instead of tax breaks for special interests, the President should act to help the 2.3 million people who have lost their jobs since he took office. Despite mixed data, our economic recovery is still a jobless one. Yet, this Administration refuses to extend unemployment insurance to Americans who have exhausted their unemployment benefits.
We missed an opportunity to put the nation on a forward path to energy security and the development of new energy sources. We are considering an energy bill that falls short of the mark. As a consequence, research and development on alternative, clean sources of energy has stalled. Americans face rising high prices for oil and natural gas, and Hawaii will continue to have high gasoline prices for the foreseeable future.
We have also fallen short in our commitment to provide an effective voluntary prescription drug benefit for Medicare. The new Medicare law lacks provides inadequate prescription drug coverage for seniors and weakens the existing Medicare entitlement program. Far too many seniors will be worse off under the program.
I also continue to have deep reservations with any step toward privatizing Social Security or relying on personal investment accounts to ensure retirement security for millions of Americans. Strengthening and reforming Social Security will be complex and difficult, but the system's problems can be resolved without altering the basic program, which has successfully kept many seniors out of poverty. We must proceed with care and act to safeguard Social Security for future generations.
All Americans are justifiably proud of the work being done by our brave men and women in uniform deployed in Afghanistan, Iraq, and installations around the world to protect our security in the global war on terror. However, I am concerned that we are missing opportunities to enhance our homeland security. The President's homeland security proposals slight the needs of states and local governments which have not received adequate funding flexibility to help prepare them for the possibility of new terrorist attacks. These missed opportunities are resulting in logistical and equipment shortfalls where we need them the most: at the local level of defense.
Our nation's cities have been under threat of attack by "dirty bombs," conventional explosives accompanied by radioactive material. The President has failed to track and secure sealed radioactive sources that could be used in such a weapon. This country needs a permanent disposal facility for unwanted radioactive sources and a better system for ensuring such material does not fall into the hands of terrorists. The President must also press for international controls on these sources.
We are failing to gain maximum advantage from our skilled federal workforce at a time when we need to attract and retain individuals with skills critical to protecting our nation. An efficient and responsive workforce is dependent on a shared vision and common goals. We miss the opportunity to attract and retain a high quality workforce when the Administration seeks to undermine the government's mission of providing public services and safeguarding the nation by contracting out essential federal services.
The President has also failed to take basic steps that could improve our nation's agricultural security. Instead of anticipating crises, this Administration waits for them to happen as demonstrated by the recent outbreak of mad cow disease. I have called for establishing a National Plant Disease Laboratory to coordinate efforts to identify and respond to plant diseases and agricultural threats; disseminate biosecurity best practices; enhance international surveillance of agricultural diseases outbreaks; and improve emergency response training in the event of a disease outbreak.
We still have the opportunity to turn rhetoric into genuine accomplishments and replace partisan strife with bipartisan cooperation.
