On January 29, 2014, Thom Hartmann writes:
Last night, President Obama delivered his State of The Union address, and what we didn’t hear is almost as important as what he said. The President said he wants 2014 to be a year of action to fight income inequality, but he never mentioned raising taxes on the rich, or helping labor groups fight the war on unions. We heard the President talk about working with CEOs to help the long-term unemployed, but he never suggested a new public works program to make our government the employer of last resort.
He talked about climate change and the importance of green energy, but he never explained how nuclear, fracking, and so-called clean coal are going to help us address global warming. And, President Obama talked about “opening new markets,” but never addressed the fact that free trade ships our jobs overseas and puts downward pressure on American wages. The President did address equal pay for equal work, he announced an executive order giving federal contractors a raise, and he talked about rewarding companies that bring American jobs back from overseas. But, this speech could have been so much more.
President Obama could have come out strongly against the Keystone Pipeline, the TPP, and the Republican obstructionism that’s left Congress at a standstill. He could have embraced policies that have worked in our nation – like FDR’s “New Deal” or President Harry Truman’s Public Works Administration. Those are the policies we need to repair our nation, and revive the American Dream. Those are the ideas that could usher in a new era of shared prosperity, and the actions that Americans would support.
Nor was the critical issue of Who Owns America and Who Should Own America was NEVER addressed. Instead, the sole focus was on Jobs Creation and Education, neither of which will be effective unless there is a solid, continuous momentum in the economic growth of the country, and that means simultaneously financing growth while creating new capital asset ownership whereby EVERY citizen over time can acquire a viable income-producing productive capital estate to augment job-sourced income. Even President Obama’s proposal for creating “retirement savings bonds” will require the pledge of “savings” and the denial of personal consumption, which in reality will benefit the more well off than the vast majority of Americans struggling to pay check to pay check. – See more at: http://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2014/01/what-state-union-could-have-been#comment-252212
http://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2014/01/what-state-union-could-have-been#comment-252212
