OPINION: By Congressman John Carter
Rainbow Stew

When they find out how to burn water,
And the gasoline car is gone.
When an airplane flies without any fuel,
And the sunlight heats our home…
When the world wide war is over and done,
And the dream of peace comes true…
When a President goes through the White House door,
An' does what he says he'll do.
We'll all be drinkin' free bubble-up,
Eatin' that rainbow stew.
Eatin’ rainbow stew with a silver spoon underneath that sky of blue
We’ll all be drinkin’ free bubble-up, and eatin’ that rainbow stew.
– Merle Haggard

President Obama painted a wonderful vision of the future on the campaign trail in 2008, promising new jobs, clean energy, affordable health care for all, world peace, balancing the federal budget, and too much to list. 

Things naturally didn’t work out like he expected, but that didn’t stop him from repeating those promises in his subsequent State of the Union Addresses in 2009, 2010, and 2011. 

He continued his string of impossible promises in his 2012 State of the Union, and even unilaterally declared that he in fact was achieving them, though the rest of the world must somehow have missed these spectacular accomplishments. 

President Obama’s Administration has not only failed to achieve a single major pledge, in many cases he has fostered precisely the opposite result of what he led his fellow Americans to believe would occur through his actions and policies. 

Obama promised in 2009 that his stimulus plan would reduce unemployment, which at the time was a horrendous 7.8%.  His plan actually led to two million more Americans losing their jobs, and the longest period of unemployment over 8% since the Great Depression, including 28 months over 9%.  More Americans have been pushed into the Food Stamp program than ever before in history, and the latest Census Bureau data shows almost half the nation has fallen to the federal poverty level or below under Obama’s watch. 

The President pledged that he would increase energy independence and lower costs, but in fact has shut down oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico in contempt of a federal court order, illegally denied construction of the Keystone Pipeline to bring Canadian oil to Texas refineries, and stood by while the price of gas has doubled under his policies.

The President told Americans he would cut the federal deficit in half by 2012, while it has instead doubled as a direct result of his stimulus policies.  The Obama Administration has added $4 trillion to the nation’s debt, the most by any Administration in American history, leading to the first ever downgrade in the credit rating of the United States.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has passed dozens of bills to create jobs over the past year, most at no cost to the taxpayer, while the President and Senate has refused to consider even one. 

The big addition to this speech was the President’s call to have our cars and trucks reach 54mpg average by 2025. While we would all love that if it were possible, what this will accomplish is the potential collapse of our domestic car industry, and at the very least drive many lower-income consumers out the new car market by increasing the price of a new car by more than $3000 per vehicle .

Or maybe science will discover some way to implement Merle Haggard’s suggestion that we can run our cars on water.  

To add insult to injury, this week the U.S. Senate under Democrat Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada reached another historic milestone – 1000 days without passing a budget, including two years with a Democrat House, Senate, and White House.   Maybe instead of making more promises, the President should tell Senator Reid to get to work and try for some bipartisan cooperation to work with the House, which has passed a budget.     

The reality America faces at this fourth and perhaps final State of the Union speech by President Obama is that it is time to stop dishing out the “rainbow stew” and instead start serving some reality by working with the House on jobs, energy, and balancing our federal budget. 

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U.S. Rep. John Carter
http://carter.house.gov/
31st District of Texas, 409 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515
Contact: John.Stone@mail.house.gov; (202) 225-3864