State of the Union: Bright Ideas, Dim Future

[marmar]

from truthdig:


State of the Union: Bright Ideas, Dim Future

Posted on Jan 20, 2015
By Bill Boyarsky


In his State of the Union speech Tuesday evening, President Barack Obama said “we turn the page.” But he didn’t say how we are supposed to proceed to the next page or the ones following it.

You can’t fault his ideas: The capital gains tax benefiting the rich should be trimmed, and the wealthy should be denied a chance to squirrel away all their gains for their heirs. He said: “... let’s close the loopholes that lead to inequality by allowing the top 1 percent to avoid paying taxes on their accumulated wealth. We can use that money to help more families pay for childcare and send their kids to college.”

But the Democratic Party and the president as its leader lost at the polls last November. The Republicans now control both houses of Congress as well as a majority of state governments. They favor reducing taxes for the rich. They want to get rid of Obamacare. Their state legislators are working feverishly to restrict and practically eliminate abortion. They want to weaken Social Security.

.......(snip).......

It’s easy to be cynical about a speech like this. I certainly was cynical when I heard Obama say, “As Americans, we cherish our civil liberties,” after having seen him conduct fierce warfare against the news media. And it was hard to take him seriously when he said “our intelligence agencies have worked hard, with the recommendations of privacy advocates, to increase transparency and build more safeguards against potential abuse.”

But there was good in this speech. I liked the way he didn’t back down in the face of anti-immigration Republicans, pointing out: “surely we can all see something of ourselves in the striving young student and agree that no one benefits when a hard-working mom is taken from her child.” ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/state_of_the_union_bright_ideas_dim_future_20150120