Last night, I attended President George W. Bush's final State of the Union address.
With a struggling economy and the continuing war in Iraq, I was looking to hear the President offer some fresh ideas to solve many of our country's most pressing problems.
Unfortunately, all I heard was more of the same.
More Of The Same Failed Bush Economic Policies
The current economic downturn is a direct result of President Bush's lack of oversight and fiscal mismanagement, leaving middle class families with a housing crisis, lower wages, and skyrocketing costs for basic necessities like gas, health care, and college tuition.
Since President Bush took office in January 2001, the unemployment rate has increased 19 percent and long-term joblessness has doubled making job creation among the worst since the Hoover Administration.
Since President Bush took office in January 2001, prices at the gas pump have jumped 107 percent!
Furthermore, because of President Bush's failed policies, the United States has accumulated $1.33 trillion more in debt to foreigners than this country has accumulated in its first 224 years.
All while 47 million Americans, including 9 million children, are left uninsured and hundreds of thousands of families were forced to foreclose on their homes in 2007 because of unscrupulous lenders.
In spite of all this, President Bush still proposed more deficit-financed tax cuts for the wealthy that have already widened the income gap between millionaires and middle-class workers tremendously.
Working families, and our nation, deserve better.
The Democratic majority is committed to protecting middle class taxpayers, expanding educational opportunities, improving health care, providing affordable and sustainable sources of energy, ensuring better pay and protections for working Americans, and restoring fiscal responsibility to Washington.
More Of The Same Failed Policies in Iraq
The President called for more of the same in Iraq and offered no hope for a change in direction.
It seems that President Bush is committed to continue spending billions of dollars every month on a war with no end in sight, while growing the deficit and ignoring priorities at home.
2007 was the deadliest year for U.S. troops in Iraq and the President's refusal to change direction comes even though the troop surge has failed to meet its stated objective: political reconciliation.
After five years, with 4,000 Americans dead and more than half a trillion dollars of taxpayer money spent, the time has long past for President Bush to put forth a plan to redeploy our troops out of Iraq’s civil war and stop spending billions in borrowed money at the expense of priorities at home.
Moving Forward in 2008
While the 110th Congress has begun to move America in a New Direction, the nation faces significant challenges that demand more action.
Democrats are committed to moving forward, past the failed policies of President George W. Bush on the economy and Iraq.
We are resolved to find common ground to restore fiscal responsibility to Washington, protect middle class families across the nation, and bring an end to the disastrous war in Iraq.
After last night's speech, it looks like much of the progress we will make this year will originate in Congress, but I am still hopeful that there will be a partner to support Congress’s forward thinking and proactive agenda in the White House.