Here’s a tag cloud of Obama’s 2011 State of the Union Address. Thanks to the New York times for the text and to Wordle for the tool.
Not much has changed since 2010. Not that I would have expected it to.
Update:
Thanks to a commenter, I was wondering if all State of the Unions look the same. They don’t.
Clinton State of the Union 1995
Washington State of the Union 1790
Raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure.
Sen. Barack Obama, March 16, 2006
Read Obama’s Plan for America – Fiscal for more background on Obama’s position on fiscal discipline… or at least former position.
The PDF, hosted on www.barackobama.com, includes these broken plans:
Restore Fiscal Discipline in Congress
Obama will reinstate pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) budget rules, so that new spending or tax cuts are paid for by spending cuts or new revenue elsewhere.
Cut Pork Barrel Spending
Obama will cut skyrocketing pork barrel spending projects by forcing more transparency about who is requesting projects and what the projects would accomplish before Congress votes to approve them.
Cut Down on Tax Haven and Tax Shelter Abuse
Obama will build on his bipartisan work to penalize companies that abuse the tax code and stop the use of tax havens.
Repeal Bush Tax Cuts for the Wealthy
Obama is committed to repealing the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.
To repeat…
Raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure.
In Obama’s first two years as president, the debt ceiling has been increased three times (with a fourth one likely coming soon). One of these three was for $1,900,000,000,000, twice the previous record for change in debt ceiling.
When Obama took office the debt ceiling was $11,315,000,000,000. Now it’s $14,294,000,000,000. A 26% change. And thats before the upcoming increase.
I’d come up with a conclusion here, but I think Barack Obama said it best. Raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure.
Dec 9
Jon Stewart on Bernanke and quantitative easing.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| The Big Bank Theory | ||||
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Nov 24
… and why the world would be better off if Ireland goes bankrupt.
I found this part of the second Bush-Gore debate at Wake Forest University particularly amusing. The debate was held on Oct. 11, 2000. Yes, I’m 10 years late. I don’t care.
The difference between Bush’ stump speech, and his actions during the subsequent eight years is astounding. 
Gore: The world’s coming together, as I said, they’re looking to us. And we have a fundamental choice to make: Are we going to step up to the plate as a nation, the way we did after World War II, the way that generation of heroes said, “OK, the United States is going to be the leader”? And the would benefited tremendously from the courage that they showed in those post-war years.
and the response…
Bush: I’m not so sure the role of the United States is to go around the world and say, “This is the way it’s got to be. We can help.” And maybe it’s just our difference in government, the way we view government. I mean, I want to empower people, I don’t you know, I want to help people help themselves, not have government tell people what to do.
I just don’t think it’s the role of the United States to walk into a country, say, “We do it this way, so should you.” Now, I think we can help, and I know we got to encourage democracy and the marketplaces…
But maybe I misunderstand where you’re coming from, Mr. Vice President, but I think the United States must be humble and must be proud and confident of our values, but humble in how we treat nations that are figuring out how to chart their own course.
See the full text here
The Declaration of Independence is something that should be read every once in a while as a reminder.
Here are some of my favorite excerpts.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent
Sep 24
With 118 bank failures in the first 8 months of 2010, the FDIC is on track to shut down 177 banks by the end of the year. This is a 26% increase from the 140 failures in 2009. Which way is the trend going? Up. The 6 month moving average hit a new high at the end of August.
As of August 31, 2010 the total institutions on the troubled bank list reached 829. This is a 100% increase over the 416 banks on the list at the end of August 2009. The 829 institutions on the troubled bank list account for over 10% of all FDIC insured banks.
Walter Williams’ Washington Lies gives some examples of horrible government “estimation”.
At its start in 1966, Medicare cost $3 billion. The House Ways and Means Committee, along with President Johnson, estimated that Medicare would cost an inflation-adjusted $12 billion by 1990; however, by 1990 Medicare costs topped $107 billion. That’s nearly nine times greater than Congress’s prediction. Today’s Medicare tab comes to $420 billion with no signs of leveling off.
During the legislative debate before ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment, President Howard Taft and congressional supporters said that only the rich would ever pay federal income taxes. In 1916 only one half of 1 percent of income earners were affected. Those earning $250,000 a year in today’s dollars paid 1 percent, and those earning $6 million in today’s dollars paid 7 percent. The promise that only the rich would pay was simply a lie to exploit the politics of envy and dupe Americans into ratifying the Sixteenth Amendment.
Read the article for some more facts and figures.
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Sep 16
Bob Murphy shares some insight on unemployment and offers a very Keynesian solution.
Government efforts to “reduce unemployment” are, at best, like putting ice cubes on a thermometer to treat a fever.
For example, most pundits accept the claim that “World War II got us out of the Depression.” And it’s true that the official unemployment rate dropped like a stone with US entry into the war. But as economic historian Bob Higgs points out, FDR had hardly “fixed” the economy: all he did was force millions of American men to leave the conventional workforce and jump into a slaughterhouse. By the same token, if President Obama made it mandatory for five million Americans to cross the ocean and paint the Great Wall of China, it’s possible that the official unemployment rate would drop.
Richard W. Fulmer and Robert L. Bradley Jr. share 15 examples of regulatory failure in, Regulatory Failure by the Numbers.
Any time government regulators try to do much more than lay out the basic rules of the game, unintended consequences and moral hazards rear their ugly heads.
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