Posted on 01/22/2004 7:07:09 AM PST by Wolfstar
ED. NOTE: On Tuesday evening, January 20, 2004, the President of the United States gave one of the most conservative State of the Union addresses in at least a generation. For a SOTU speech, it had a remarkably short spending wish list. Instead, it had passages such as those excerpted below none of which would have been spoken by a Democrat or liberal (i.e., Leftist), or even a "RINO." Check it out:
[BEGIN EXCERPTS: Bold/underscore emphasis by Wolfstar]
Our greatest responsibility is the active defense of the American people. Twenty-eight months have passed since September 11th, 2001 over two years without an attack on American soil. And it is tempting to believe that the danger is behind us. That hope is understandable, comforting and false.
[SNIP]
The once all-powerful ruler of Iraq was found in a hole, and now sits in a prison cell. Of the top 55 officials of the former regime, we have captured or killed 45. Our forces are on the offensive, leading over 1,600 patrols a day and conducting an average of 180 raids a week. We are dealing with these thugs in Iraq, just as surely as we dealt with Saddam Hussein's evil regime.
Because of American leadership and resolve, the world is changing for the better. Last month, the leader of Libya voluntarily pledged to disclose and dismantle all of his regime's weapons of mass destruction programs, including a uranium enrichment project for nuclear weapons.
[SNIP]
Nine months of intense negotiations involving the United States and Great Britain succeeded with Libya, while 12 years of diplomacy with Iraq did not. And one reason is clear: For diplomacy to be effective, words must be credible, and no one can now doubt the word of America.
Many of our troops are listening tonight. And I want you and your families to know: America is proud of you. And my administration, and this Congress, will give you the resources you need to fight and win the war on terror.
I know that some people question if America is really in a war at all. They view terrorism more as a crime, a problem to be solved mainly with law enforcement and indictments. After the World Trade Center was first attacked in 1993, some of the guilty were indicted and tried and convicted, and sent to prison. But the matter was not settled. The terrorists were still training and plotting in other nations, and drawing up more ambitious plans. After the chaos and carnage of September the 11th, it is not enough to serve our enemies with legal papers. The terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States, and war is what they got.
[SNIP]
Some critics have said our duties in Iraq must be internationalized. This particular criticism is hard to explain to our partners in Britain, Australia, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, Italy, Spain, Poland, Denmark, Hungary, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Romania, the Netherlands (applause) Norway, El Salvador, and the 17 other countries that have committed troops to Iraq. As we debate at home, we must never ignore the vital contributions of our international partners, or dismiss their sacrifices.
From the beginning, America has sought international support for our operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and we have gained much support. There is a difference, however, between leading a coalition of many nations, and submitting to the objections of a few. America will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our country.
We also hear doubts that democracy is a realistic goal for the greater Middle East, where freedom is rare. Yet it is mistaken, and condescending, to assume that whole cultures and great religions are incompatible with liberty and self-government. I believe that God has planted in every human heart the desire to live in freedom. And even when that desire is crushed by tyranny for decades, it will rise again.
[SNIP]
In the last three years, adversity has also revealed the fundamental strengths of the American economy. We have come through recession, and terrorist attack, and corporate scandals, and the uncertainties of war. And because you acted to stimulate our economy with tax relief, this economy is strong, and growing stronger.
You have doubled the child tax credit from $500 to $1,000, reduced the marriage penalty, begun to phase out the death tax, reduced taxes on capital gains and stock dividends, cut taxes on small businesses, and you have lowered taxes for every American who pays income taxes.
Americans took those dollars and put them to work, driving this economy forward. The pace of economic growth in the third quarter of 2003 was the fastest in nearly 20 years; new home construction, the highest in almost 20 years; home ownership rates, the highest ever. Manufacturing activity is increasing. Inflation is low. Interest rates are low. Exports are growing. Productivity is high, and jobs are on the rise.
These numbers confirm that the American people are using their money far better than government would have and you were right to return it.
[SNIP]
We're requiring higher standards [in schools]. We are regularly testing every child on the fundamentals. We are reporting results to parents, and making sure they have better options when schools are not performing.
[SNIP]
We must continue to pursue an aggressive, pro-growth economic agenda. Congress has some unfinished business on the issue of taxes. The tax reductions you passed are set to expire. Unless you act (applause) unless you act unless you act, the unfair tax on marriage will go back up. Unless you act, millions of families will be charged $300 more in federal taxes for every child. Unless you act, small businesses will pay higher taxes. Unless you act, the death tax will eventually come back to life. Unless you act, Americans face a tax increase. What Congress has given, the Congress should not take away. For the sake of job growth, the tax cuts you passed should be permanent.
Our agenda for jobs and growth must help small business owners and employees with relief from needless federal regulation, and protect them from junk and frivolous lawsuits.
Consumers and businesses need reliable supplies of energy to make our economy run so I urge you to pass legislation to modernize our electricity system, promote conservation, and make America less dependent on foreign sources of energy.
My administration is promoting free and fair trade to open up new markets for America's entrepreneurs and manufacturers and farmers to create jobs for American workers. Younger workers should have the opportunity to build a nest egg by saving part of their Social Security taxes in a personal retirement account. We should make the Social Security system a source of ownership for the American people.
[SNIP]
In two weeks, I will send you a budget that funds the war, protects the homeland, and meets important domestic needs, while limiting the growth in discretionary spending to less than 4 percent. This will require that Congress focus on priorities, cut wasteful spending, and be wise with the people's money. By doing so, we can cut the deficit in half over the next five years.
Tonight, I also ask you to reform our immigration laws so they reflect our values and benefit our economy.
[SNIP]
I oppose amnesty, because it would encourage further illegal immigration, and unfairly reward those who break our laws. My temporary worker program will preserve the citizenship path for those who respect the law, while bringing millions of hardworking men and women out from the shadows of American life.
[ED. NOTE: The precedent for guest worker programs goes back at least to the Eisenhower administration.]
[SNIP]
In January of 2006, seniors can get prescription drug coverage under Medicare. For a monthly premium of about $35, most seniors who do not have that coverage today can expect to see their drug bills cut roughly in half. Under this reform, senior citizens will be able to keep their Medicare just as it is, or they can choose a Medicare plan that fits them best just as you, as members of Congress, can choose an insurance plan that meets your needs. And starting this year, millions of Americans will be able to save money tax-free for their medical expenses in a health savings account.
[SNIP]
On the critical issue of health care, our goal is to ensure that Americans can choose and afford private health care coverage that best fits their individual needs.
[SNIP]
Small businesses should be able to band together and negotiate for lower insurance rates, so they can cover more workers with health insurance. I urge you to pass association health plans. I ask you to give lower-income Americans a refundable tax credit that would allow millions to buy their own basic health insurance.
[SNIP]
To protect the doctor-patient relationship, and keep good doctors doing good work, we must eliminate wasteful and frivolous medical lawsuits. And tonight I propose that individuals who buy catastrophic health care coverage, as part of our new health savings accounts, be allowed to deduct 100 percent of the premiums from their taxes.
A government-run health care system is the wrong prescription. By keeping costs under control, expanding access, and helping more Americans afford coverage, we will preserve the system of private medicine that makes America's health care the best in the world.
[SNIP]
One of the worst decisions our children can make is to gamble their lives and futures on drugs. Our government is helping parents confront this problem with aggressive education, treatment, and law enforcement. Drug use in high school has declined by 11 percent over the last two years. Four hundred thousand fewer young people are using illegal drugs than in the year 2001.
[SNIP]
A strong America must also value the institution of marriage. I believe we should respect individuals as we take a principled stand for one of the most fundamental, enduring institutions of our civilization. Congress has already taken a stand on this issue by passing the Defense of Marriage Act, signed in 1996 by President Clinton. That statute protects marriage under federal law as a union of a man and a woman, and declares that one state may not redefine marriage for other states.
Activist judges, however, have begun redefining marriage by court order, without regard for the will of the people and their elected representatives. On an issue of such great consequence, the people's voice must be heard. If judges insist on forcing their arbitrary will upon the people, the only alternative left to the people would be the constitutional process. Our nation must defend the sanctity of marriage.
[SNIP]
It's also important to strengthen our communities by unleashing the compassion of America's religious institutions. Religious charities of every creed are doing some of the most vital work in our country mentoring children, feeding the hungry, taking the hand of the lonely. Yet government has often denied social service grants and contracts to these groups, just because they have a cross or a Star of David or a crescent on the wall. By executive order, I have opened billions of dollars in grant money to competition that includes faith-based charities. Tonight I ask you to codify this into law, so people of faith can know that the law will never discriminate against them again.
[SNIP]
The momentum of freedom in our world is unmistakable and it is not carried forward by our power alone. We can trust in that greater power who guides the unfolding of the years. And in all that is to come, we can know that His purposes are just and true.
[END EXCERPTS]
But, that's not what the Constitution has in mind - as citizens, it expects us to be informed and to do our jobs in our communities on the soapbox and at the ballot box.
Like ol' Ben Franklin admonished us 'we gave you a Republic, if you can keep it.'
VOTE DEMOCRAT - IT BEATS WORKING
I take it by your personal attack that you'd prefer not to answer the questions. I'll list the questions once again in case you change your mind.
1. Did George Bush place his hand on the Holy Bible and swear an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America?
2. Did George Bush say he thought the McCain/Feingold Campaign Finance legislation was un-Constitutional?
3. Did George Bush then sign that legislation into law abridging our 1st Amendment rights?
4. Did George Bush keep his word and uphold his sworn oath?
Meaning there isn't any other choice - we're gonna have to ride this horse.
Given the alternatives - there is no other acceptable outcome except for Bush to win.
We need to start thinking now about the out years - who can the GOP run in 2008 to win ?? We're the party that has to work to take back America - and we've got a long, long row to hoe, my friend. We have to start by cleaning our own house.
That's the race the Dems are REALLY focused on winning, especially that junior Senator from NY (makes me shudder, sickens me viscerally).
I think the world of Bob Dole as a man and as a workhorse for America, but let's call a spade a shovel, he never was a viable candidate - we just can't afford to run another Bob Dole.
We've got to work hard to keep these career Democrat politician's, with their lying leftist liberal lunatic ideas out of government - they're a bunch of egomaniacs who've grown far too accustomed to feeding at the public trough, meanwhile tossing over their shoulders huge chunks of pork to their constituents back home who devour it like piranha.
You wanna talk about working class people, we're the working class people, and that pork they toss around so easily represents the sweat and toil of our hard labor. The people who pay immorally high taxes to run this country - that's who working class Americans are. The Dems want class warfare, let's give it to 'em - I'm sick of paying for programs for people who CAN work and don't, and in a variety of permutations on that theme.
For example, that spending bill they finally passed yesterday contained $50 million for a rain forest in Iowa - what the hell is that all about ?? And, even here in my home district - it contained money to build commuter train parking lots.
Why is the federal government building commuter parking lots - its insane - these expenditures have NOTHING to do with any federal imperative.
The one thing I agree with McCain about is his crusade against pork. By his reckoning, the bill contained $11 Billion (with a BIG B) for pure pork, and he called on Dubya to veto the bill for that reason. Of course, he won't.
Still, we gotta pull that lever, or push that chad for Bush - AND GET ON WITH PLANNING FOR '08.
We've got to win that one too because the Dems aren't gonna run anybody sensible like a Nunn, or Breaux or a Zell Miller - they've been captured (caught up in the rapture) of the lunatic fringe of the far left.
Beyond liberalism, what they want for America is far worse than even a Swedish-style social democracy - they want a totalitarian state with them in charge.
You think we see a lot of nanny laws now, hate SUVs, hate smokers, tax fat people, no handheld cell phones and on and on and on - let 'em put one of their hate-America leftists in power, it won't be long until the UN controls more than Manhattan, they'll rule all America - any vestige of sovereignty we have left will be gone, and we might even see blue-helmeted jack-booted thugs patrolling the streets of middle-America trying to confiscate our guns. The UN has said they want to disarm the people of the world.
Beyond shredding the MEANING of the Constitution, they may shred it for real. Surely you won't see it on display at the Archives, because its just a remnant of an evil time when slave-holding robber barons ruled America as a proletariate class - and subjugated the working class to lives of poverty, disease and inhuman labor conditions.
Starting with the airlines, American industry will be nationalized, we can't tolerate an investor class sharing in the profits of successful multinational conglomerates. And those boards of directors and corporate executives just earn way too much money, that's just not right, its not fair. Instead we'll use that money to pay reparations - that's how they'll sell their evil plan to America.
Listen to those Deaniacs - you think they won't buy in to the demise of free enterprise, that capitalism is nothing more than a anachronistic, failed economic model ?? Of course they buy it, they believe it, they FEEL it !!
You think I'm kidding, that I'm extreme - if the next 40 years is anything like the last 40, it will be even worse.
Off soapbox - gotta go - gotta finish re-reading Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged,
VOTE DEMOCRAT - IT BEATS WORKING
While I want Sheila Jackson-Lee term limited, I would not want to see Tom DeLay or Ron Paul term limited. Hopefully redistricting will help y'all get rid of Jackson-Lee.
The budget was balance during a Democrat-led Congress...undeniable fact.
The budget was balanced because of a combination of budget cutbacks, and new taxes...undeniable fact.
The budget was balanced before the Republicans took Congress in '94...undeniable fact.
Bush broke his pledge, and sacrificed his chance at re-election in order to get the Democrats to agree to budget cutbacks...undeniable fact.
Being a conservative does not mean promoting lies, even if that means having to accept truths that you don't want to accept.
I'm glad you're out of education, you can't even read an article and understand what it says...maybe, kids in whatever school district you were involved with will now stand a chance.
All I can do is offer platitudes - 'The oxen are slow - but the Earth is patient.'
Like the war on terror, it will take us decades to reverse nearly a century of government vicissitude. Like Winston Churchill said, 'Never, never, never, never give up,'
We simply CAN NOT be compelled to burn down the barn to get rid of the rats.
What I fear about the Dems is their unbridled commitment to control every aspect of our lives in the most minute detail, all in the name of what's best for the public good.
These people aren't offering candidates from the moderate or conservative wings of their party, they're not even offering us Lyndon Johnson types of candidates.
Except for Lieberman, they're offering us candidates who display every trait of a communist, except for the obligatory government mandated warning label.
I fear these extreme liberals truly believe in a totalitarian form of government, and that like the worst kind of despot, they earnestly believe they have been empowered by a Divine Right to create an oligarchy, an inner sanctum, consisting only of those who share their view of the world.
I fear it is their goal to create their vision of a utopia combining the very worst aspects of Karl Marx and King George III.
I fear this is not just their vision for America - instead it is their vision for the world, the most terrible kind of globalism you can imagine.
They won't resort to the murderous tactics of an Adolph Hitler, but they mean to rule in ways far beyond anything in Mein Kampf.
More platitudes:
"Good intentions will always be pleaded for any assumption of power. The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters." Daniel Webster
Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude. Alexis dTocqueville.
"Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." George Washington.
These are the things I fear.
VOTE DEMOCRAT - IT BEATS WORKING
These were dynamic issues, the ultimate outcomes which were affected by input from many actors.
In logic, your examples portray a non sequitur argument known as affirming the consequence.
Here's another example: If the mill were polluting the river then we would see an increase in fish deaths. And fish deaths have increased. Thus, the mill is polluting the river.
The provisions of Article I Section 8 Clauses 11-16 inclusive are not intended to interfere with the Presidents express authority as Commander in Chief in accordance with Article II Section 2 Clause 1.
Remember back then, Congress was only in session for a few weeks each year. And Congresscritters were located across a wide geographic area and communication was slow.
The founding fathers knew that the defense of the nation might require the President to act both quickly and decisively. Thus, the Constitution does not tie the Presidents hands and compel him to await Congressional action to deploy forces in defense of the nation.
And there is precedent to consider. The Constitution doesn't establish the concept of Judicial Review, the first Chief Justice John Marshall created it out of thin air but, to this day it is the law of the land so to speak.
Thomas Jefferson set another lasting precedent when he sent the Navy halfway around the world to quell the Barbary Pirates , and thus it has been evermore.
And, with respect to Iraq, in 1998 during the Clinton administration, Congress passed an act calling for regime change there. Before, we went to Iraq, Dubya asked Congress for their blessing, and they gave it including Kerry who now says he meant it only as a hollow threat. And Congress has passed appropriations authorizing the continuation of hostilities specifically in Iraq and for the War on Terror in general.
You can take your lunch break without stopping, maybe take a snooze too. But, the earth is patient.
I've heard this all my life. But, in the movie High Road to China Tom Selleck asked some shaman in Nepal if he had any words of wisdom, and that was the shaman's reply. Selleck had a puzzled look on his face too :-)
Do you consider Frist and Giuliani to be conservatives ??
I'm not warm and fuzzy that's good news.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.