"I appreciate President Bush’s call for bipartisanship and his willingness to work with Congress for the benefit of the American people.  Bipartisanship is critical.  Over the past six years, however, the President has failed to work with the Congress in a bipartisan manner.  It remains to be seen whether he can rise above the rhetoric and get down to the serious business of resolving our nation’s health care, immigration, and energy crisis.

"On many of the issues the President addressed, he either offered vague generalities or the same time-worn prescriptions.

"On Iraq, the President is in a state of denial.  He essentially told America that he is staying the course, despite the fact that his Generals, Congress, and the American public have grown overwhelmingly skeptical of our military involvement in Iraq.  Sadly, the President refuses to face the truth in Iraq.  He wants to send twenty thousand more troops, but he still cannot explain our mission in Iraq.  He says ‘the goal is victory,’ but he cannot define what victory is.

"On education, the President wants to add on new requirements to No Child Left Behind, but he hasn’t even provided proper funding to make the old programs truly viable.  He owes it to our kids to find the money to make the programs work.

"On health, the President again dodges the issue. Governors across the country – including some Republicans – are confronting this issue because they understand its essence.  Health coverage is a moral issue.  When families are filing for bankruptcy because they cannot pay for their hospital bill, we have a moral crisis.  Until the President understands the moral imperative, he won’t be part of the solution.

"On energy, last year the President declared in his State of the Union Address that the country is ‘addicted to oil.’  But one week later, his new budget cut funding for the development of alternative fuels and technologies, a critical component to making the U.S. energy independent.  This year, the President proposed a number of programs to enhance U.S. energy security.  The devil is in the details, and it remains to be seen whether the President’s programs for greater energy independence will work.

"Finally, I was waiting to hear what the President’s plans are for rebuilding the Gulf Coast.  After Katrina, President Bush went to New Orleans and said that we are going to rebuild the Gulf Coast, ‘even better and stronger.’  But here we are eighteen months later, and the President has not upheld his end of the bargain.  Communities are not being rebuilt, residents are still displaced in cities all over the United States, and most of all the New Orleans the President promised to rebuild has been forgotten about while we continue to pump billions of dollars into Iraq."