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Matt
Trad climber
places you shouldn't talk about in polite company
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jan 30, 2006 - 03:57pm PT
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copied from the net:
Floor Remarks by Senator Reid, as prepared for delivery Monday, January 30, 2006
Tomorrow night, President Bush will come to the Capitol and deliver his fifth State of the Union Address. It is an important moment for President Bush and America. In fact, this may be the most difficult speech the President will ever give.
The president comes to the Capitol in the midst of the greatest culture of corruption since Watergate. Republican corruption has destroyed the public’s trust in our government and taken a great toll on the state of our union.
In his speech, it will be up to President Bush to show he is committed to restoring the bonds of trust and repairing the damage done by Republican corruption.
Americans know our country can do better than today, and after the year we just had – a year of Katrina, unending violence in Iraq, Terri Schiavo, Social Security Privatization, Harriet Meirs, the Medicare mess – Americans will no longer be willing to blindly accept the President’s promises and give him the benefit of the doubt.
Americans will be looking past the President’s rhetoric tomorrow night and taking a hard look at the results he intends to deliver.
The President’s State of the Union speech is a credibility test.
Will he acknowledge the real state of our union and offer to take our country down a path that unites us and makes us stronger?
Or will he give us more of the same empty promises and partisanship that have weakened our country and divided Americans for the last five years?
If he takes the first approach, together, we can build a stronger America.
If he gives us more of the same, we’ll know he intends to spend 2006 putting his political fortunes ahead of America’s future.
America needs a fresh start, and I hope President Bush realizes that Tuesday night. There is so much more at stake in this speech than the President’s poll numbers.
Empty promises will no longer cut it.
We need a credible roadmap for our future. And we need the President to tell us how together, we can achieve the better America that we all envision.
Our first signal that the president intends to move our country forward will come in his assessment of the state of our union.
It’s not credible for the President to suggest the state of our union is as strong as it should be.
The fact is, America can do better. From health care to national security, Republican corruption has taken its toll on our country, and we can see it in the state of our union.
We are less safe in the world than we were four and half years ago, because the White House has decided protecting its political power is more important than protecting the American people.
We are the wealthiest nation on earth, but not the healthiest, because Republicans in Congress have decided to take care of Big Drug Companies and HMOs instead of the 46 million uninsured.
We have a national debt climbing past 8 trillion dollars, because the president squandered the strongest economy of our lifetime with reckless spending and irresponsible tax breaks for special interests and multi-millionaires.
We have an addiction to foreign oil that has climbed steadily and doubled the price of heat and gas since late 2001, because the Vice President let Big Oil companies write our energy policy.
And we have too many middle-class families living on a financial cliff, because Republican economic policies place the needs of the wealthy and well-connected ahead of working Americans.
If President Bush is committed to making America stronger, he will acknowledge these facts. He will admit the steep price Americans have paid for Republican corruption, and he will proceed to tell us how he will make our country stronger.
Our second clue that President Bush is committed to moving America forward will come in his remarks about national security.
Tomorrow night, it’s not credible for the President to tell us that he has done all he can to keep America safe for the last five years and that he should be allowed to proceed down the same path unchecked.
The truth is exactly the opposite. For all his tough talk, President Bush’s policies have made America less safe.
His failed record speaks for itself.
Osama bin Laden – the man who attacked us on 9/11 - remains on the loose, because – in his rush to invade Iraq - the President took his eye of the ball when we had bin Laden cornered in Afghanistan. As a result, Bin Laden escaped and continues to threaten us today.
Then, there’s the President’s Axis of Evil.
Four years ago, the President declared Iraq, Iran, and North Korea an “axis of evil,” whose nuclear threats posed a risk to the American people. He was right. But, instead of pursuing the correct policies to make us safe, he invaded Iraq. Now, two members of the axis of evil – North Korea and Iran – are more dangerous, and – after spending billions of dollars and losing 2300 American lives – we’ve found out the third – Iraq – didn’t pose a nuclear threat.
Then, there’s what this president has done to our military.
Not only has the president failed to properly equip our troops for battle, but he’s also stretched the force entirely too thin.
Mr. President, the national security failures go on and on.
The President’s poor planning and refusal to change course in Iraq has made progress in 2006 harder to achieve…
As Katrina made clear, he failed to prepare our homeland for a possible attack following 9/11.
And the President has made it more difficult to spread democracy around the world, because he’s been undermining it at home - - - through his executive power grabs and his “trust me its legal” approach to the NSA domestic eavesdropping program.
America can do better.
Tomorrow night, we need the President to rally the country around our most important goal – protecting our people and way of life.
Democrats have always been willing to work with President Bush to make America more secure.
Tuesday, it’s not enough for the President to display the swagger of the Campaigner in Chief. We need to see honesty and candor from the Commander in Chief.
Our third signal that President Bush understands what it will take to make the state of our union strong will come when he talks about health care.
Because of the President’s inaction on health care for the last five years, America faces a health care crisis of staggering proportions. We have 46 million Americans uninsured. The cost of health care premiums has almost doubled since 2001. Companies like Ford and GM are finding it difficult to compete in the world because they’re crippled by skyrocketing health care costs.
With a record like that, it’s not credible for the President to claim he has a vision to make health care affordable. He needs to present us new ideas that will move America forward, not trot out the same tired, old policies that serve special interests and not the American people.
From press reports, I fear we will only hear tired, old ideas, like the President’s plan for Health Savings Accounts.
Health Savings Accounts - - that’s classic Bush doublespeak, and it’s not a credible solution to the health care crisis. Here’s all you need to know about HSAs – you’ll pay more and get less.
This plan is another giveaway to the same people the president has favored over hard working Americans for the last five years.
In fact, remember Social Security privatization? HSAs are a lot like that. They do nothing to solve the real problem. They make the situation worse for the American people. And they create a financial windfall for the President’s friends.
We don’t need to hear the President to offer more of the same on health care.
What we need is a new direction - one that puts families first.
Democrats believe that addressing the health care crisis is not just a moral imperative, but it’s also vital to our economic security and leadership in the world. Every day we go without reform is another day America takes a step backward from its position as a global leader. For our families, we must make health care affordable and accessible. For our businesses, we must remove the burden of skyrocketing costs that is holding our businesses, our economy and our workers back in the global marketplace.
Our fourth clue that President Bush knows what America needs will come in his remarks about the economy.
After all we’ve seen in the last five years, it will not be credible for the President to claim that our economy is growing… that his “plan” to reduce “his” deficits is working… and that Congress is to blame for overspending and bad decision making.
The truth is, the fiscal nightmare we see today belongs to President Bush and President Bush alone.
Here’s another doublespeak we’re likely to hear tomorrow night – the Bush Competitive Agenda.
This president can talk all he wants about making America competitive, but for five years, he’s done nothing to keep America in the game.
From what we’ve read in the press, this plan sounds like more empty rhetoric from a president that has spent five years slashing the funding we need to stay on the cutting edge.
President Bush has shut the doors of college to thousands of students by supporting the largest student aid cut in history.
He’s allowed our country to fall further behind our trading partners.
And he’s lavished billion on Big Oil, instead of investing in American technology and know-how that would make us energy independent.
We need to hear new economic ideas.
The President needs to tell us how he’s going to stop increasing the debt and start paying it down, so our children and grandchildren don’t pay the price for his reckless fiscal record.
We need to hear how he’s going to help middle-class families deal with rising energy prices.
And we need him to speak honestly about tax relief.
Here’s the truth about the Bush tax breaks. Multi-millionaires stand to receive over 100,000 dollars, while the average working family will receive less than 1,000 dollars.
The President’s priorities are upside down. It’s time for him to join Democrats and bring fairness to our tax code.
Democrats are ready to work with President Bush, but he needs to commit to policies that put the needs of hardworking Americans first.
Our final signal that President Bush is committed to making America stronger will come on the issue of reform.
Because of connections to the culture of corruption and stonewalling about Jack Abramoff, it is not credible for President Bush to claim the moral high ground on values and honest government.
President Bush needs to set an example if he’s going to lead our country forward. He needs to come clean about his connections to corruption and join Democrats in uniting behind the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, introduced in the Senate two weeks ago.
Too many Republicans have shown in recent days that they are more interested in throwing mud and obscuring the facts, than cleaning up Washington. If our country is going to make progress in 2006, President Bush needs to set them straight.
Democrats have a plan to reform Washington. We’re trying to bring it to the Senate Floor for an up-or-down vote. Unfortunately, the Republican Majority is blocking our effort.
If President Bush is going to pass the credibility test tomorrow night, he needs to direct the Republican leadership of the House and the Senate to make real, meaningful reform the first item of business next week.
It’s so important that President Bush lead by example. Remember, it’s Republicans – not Democrats – who have abandoned values like community and opportunity, and embraced vices like greed and arrogance instead.
It’s Republicans who control the White House, where men are willing to break the law and ignore America’s best interest so they can protect their political power.
It’s Republicans on K-Street who have conspired with lawmakers to put the well-connected first.
And it’s Republicans who control the Congress, which has sold its soul to special interests and the Republican right-wing base, a base that has its sights set on stacking our courts with extremist judges.
Tomorrow night, the president will undoubtedly praise the confirmation of Judge Samuel Alito.
Let me be clear: Democrats stand united against Judge Alito because he too protects special interests over America’s interest and has failed to demonstrate that he will be a check on presidential power.
Mr. President, the President faces a tremendous test tomorrow night.
It’s up to him to prove to the American people that he intends to denounce the culture of corruption and change direction in 2006.
Democrats are ready to work with President Bush in order move our country forward, because we believe that together, America can do better.
Tomorrow night, I hope President Bush will join us in putting progress ahead of politics, so we can have a state of the union as honest and strong as the American people.
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Apocalypsenow
Trad climber
Cali
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Jan 30, 2006 - 04:05pm PT
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and here we have "Matt." The crazed "copier and paster, democrat," who's most rebellious activity is his copying and pasting and perhaps an anti-Bush bumper sticker on the car his parents bought him (which he takes off each time he visit's mom and dad)
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Matt
Trad climber
places you shouldn't talk about in polite company
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 30, 2006 - 04:21pm PT
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actually, that's not what the bumper sticker says, and i do find cutting and pasting to be an investment of my own time that is more on par w/ the quality of "debate" on this forum then penning my own thoughts. at least i am not parroting some comentator and pretending his thoughts are my own- so i have no appologies for you pal.
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Apocalypsenow
Trad climber
Cali
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Jan 30, 2006 - 04:26pm PT
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Well pal,
Form a coherent thought on your own or accept the fact that you will most likely be as so many others before you: In three years, after you have exited college, working your way up the corporations fast track…bad mouthing Republicans any time it suits your pathetic little career, going home to your trophy wife, visiting your local sport climbing crag, dogging your way up some four bolted boulder problem, with your obnoxious black lab barking the whole time.
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Matt
Trad climber
places you shouldn't talk about in polite company
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 30, 2006 - 04:49pm PT
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off base on each and every count (even the lab is yellow), but thanks for floating my otherwise uninteresting thread to the to a couple of times.
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Apocalypsenow
Trad climber
Cali
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Jan 30, 2006 - 05:11pm PT
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just because it floats to the top, doesn't mean anyone reads it
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Matt
Trad climber
places you shouldn't talk about in polite company
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 30, 2006 - 05:19pm PT
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nor do i really care.
i am not above some occasional instigation.
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Chaz
Trad climber
So. Cal.
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Jan 30, 2006 - 05:27pm PT
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Thanks for providing some clarity.
One party is the party of plans and ideas.
The other party is the party of instigation.
And the Democrats wonder why they keep losing elections.
Nobody likes a bunch of whining cry-babies.
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Matt
Trad climber
places you shouldn't talk about in polite company
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 30, 2006 - 05:34pm PT
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oh, ok, i guess you are right, apparently everyone(?) likes crooks, cronies, liars, and hypocrites, just so long as they get theirs too.
btw- i don't always love the democrats, i just often hate the republicans, and you republicans who gloat over the current power in DC and refute or ignore the blatant corruption of the party in power are in no way doing a service to either your party or your country. bitch-slapping democrats doesn't change that fact, just makes people not lke you (thus the inevitable ebb and flow of political power).
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Apocalypsenow
Trad climber
Cali
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Jan 30, 2006 - 05:39pm PT
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Your party is pathetic. Worse than the Republicans in that they "may" know the truth, but are so spineless they might lose thier jobs, they say and do nothing.
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mark miller
Social climber
Reno
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Jan 30, 2006 - 05:45pm PT
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I Heart Harry.
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Chaz
Trad climber
So. Cal.
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Jan 30, 2006 - 06:02pm PT
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Until the Democrats come up with a plan for the future, and quit belly-aching about the past, they will continue to lose elections.
Do the Democrats have a reason to elect them, besides the fact they're not Republicans? If they do, they have done a poor job of getting the word out. I guess it's either easier or more fun to bitch about things than it is to think of a way to fix things.
The core, on both sides, will always be the core. Fatrad and Jody will always vote Republican, Karl Baba and Matt will always vote Democrat. Then they're guys like me, I don't know who I'm going to vote for next election. But I know I am going to vote. We are the ones who decide elections.
I crossed party lines to vote for Bush in the last two elections. The Libertarian Party left me when, during a war, their big pressing issue was the legalization of ferrets. My party sold-out to the "weasel lobby". I can cross party lines again.
The Democrats have a golden opurtunity to win me over to their side, all they have to do is enunciate a workable way make my life better. I have been asking how the Democrats intend to solve all the problems they've become so good at complaining about for several years now. I have gotten no response at all, either they are keeping their plan a secret (like Senator Kerry in the last election) or they don't have any answers. I am starting to think the Democrats don't have any answers. If the Democrats insist on being un-responsive and dodging questions while they are running for office, what is there to make us think they're going to be any more forthcoming after they get elected?
The Republicans have helped me in ways I can measure by letting me keep more of the money I've earned (tax relief). What do the Democrats have to compete with that?
Please Advise.
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Spinmaster K-Rove
Trad climber
Stuck Under the Kor Roof
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Jan 30, 2006 - 09:03pm PT
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"The Republicans have helped me in ways I can measure by letting me keep more of the money I've earned (tax relief). What do the Democrats have to compete with that? "
Apparently you are just the kind of sucker they are looking for. They give you back 'your money' and then take the rest of 'your money' and have spent it on things that largely make us weaker as a nation. Its easier to dole out money to huge businesses, lose billions to petty theft in Iraq and otherwise rob us blind when you feel like you are getting your cut. I agree that on the national level Democrats have been sorely lacking in vision and communication, but don't be fooled by buying Republican hype. They want you to believe that government IS the problem, and they have made sure that they fulfilled that vision by turning our gov't into every joke they ever made about it.
The idea that governemnt 'just gets in people's way' is ludicrous. We have seen what people are willing to do when the bottom line is the only thing keeping them in check, and it isn't pretty. Government is massive, slow and inefficient and that is part of what keeps us free. It is supposed to be slow and calculating. If we act like we own it then it will act like we own it.
Yeah paying taxes sucks but not having roads, the internet, health care research, environmental protection nor the freedom to spray on internet forums that nobody reads sucks a lot more. Government is what helps us as a people work together to achieve greater things, even though it pisses us off to see how inane it is. That is why our Constitution puts so much stock in state andlocal governments..so that people we know and have access to are making a lot of the decisions that affect our daily lives.
So remember the next time Bush touts his tax cuts, that he has given away a hell of a lot more money to people who didn't need it and didn't deserve it than he gave you...and a lot of THAT money was 'yours' too. How's that for wealth redistribution?
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Matt
Trad climber
places you shouldn't talk about in polite company
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 30, 2006 - 10:28pm PT
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Apparently you are just the kind of sucker they are looking for
u hit the nail right on the head spin. i was going to tell him as much but felt it was a lost cause (as the rest of your well reasoned logic is obviously way over his head). all he sees is his few hundred bucks a year in tax cuts, which will buy him that many more big macs. how depressing.
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Chaz
Trad climber
So. Cal.
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Jan 30, 2006 - 10:36pm PT
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You Democrats can run on that. Chance after chance to tell the American People how the Democrats intend to improve things is being squandered away. The Democrats should be shouting their plan from the roof-tops, instead they appear to be either keeping it a secret (Senator Kerry), or running away from it (Senator Clinton).
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Splater
climber
Grey Matter
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Jan 31, 2006 - 01:12am PT
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The Bush fans continue a streak of inability to put together a well thought argument.
I think Matt starts these threads just so you can display your lack of argumentative skill.
Asking Democrats to present a perfect grand unified theory of utopia is pissing into the strawman.
Yet all it would take to solve a lot of problems is simply not to do what the Repubs have done in recent years.
Having a clear plan like the Repubs does not make it a good plan.
Did you actually read any of the SPECIFIC items in Sen Reid's speech?
Just on the offchance that all the Bush fans are not trolls,
please defend:
Medicare Drug Plan
Lying about and Attacking Iraq
Eliminating the Estate Tax
Subsidizing Fossil Fuel Industry
Katrina response
Squandering the temporary Social Security Surplus
Anti-environmental rules
Warrantless Spying & lying about it
Quintupling earmarking
Abuse of military and national guard (creating enlistment problems)
Condoning torture, secret prisons, etc.
Faith based policies
Closed administration - silencing critics
Cronyism - installing industry executives to regulate themselves
Alienating much of the rest of the world (to spite ourselves)
Exacerbating the wealth and income divide
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Chaz
Trad climber
So. Cal.
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Jan 31, 2006 - 01:40am PT
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Millions of Americans, myself included, are undecided as to whom to support in the up-coming mid-term elections. The Democrats so far have offered up nothing but complaints. People can only take so much complaining before they get tired of it. Splater proves my point. The time it took for him to compile his list of complaints could have been put to better use finding reasons to support his position. I'm on the fence, I can either be pulled over to your side, or pushed over the other way. If you want to be the Party of Whining and Complaining, you'll lose me. If you put forward solutions to those problems you noted, I promise to give them honest consideration. Are you afraid to tell me how you would fix things? Or don't you know how set things right?
The only difference I see between Democrats and Republicans is Republicans are cutting taxes, while Democrats want to raise taxes.
I never have to ask a Republican more than once how they intend to make things better for me, they can't wait to give me details of their plans.
I have asked all the Democrats I know "what can you do for me" and I have yet to get an answer. I'm starting to think the Democrats themselves don't know what they want to do.
edit:
The Libertarians wouldn't have done what Bush has done.
The Peace and Freedom Party wouldn't have done what Bush has done.
The American Independent Party wouldn't have done what Bush has done.
The Natural Law Party would not have done what Bush has done.
The Green Party would not have done what Bush has done.
The Democrats are squandering their best chance in decades to sell themselves in a positive way.
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Landgolier
climber
the flatness
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Jan 31, 2006 - 03:49am PT
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"I have asked all the Democrats I know "what can you do for me" and I have yet to get an answer. I'm starting to think the Democrats themselves don't know what they want to do."
Don't take this personally, but the crap the parties tell the average Joe to get his vote has jack sh-it to do with the broader agenda. I know, I did it professionally. You want to know what the Dems want to do for you, just look at what they have done in the past:
Bill Richardson guided his state through the lean years of '01-'04 with hardly any fiscal pain, while other states were squeezing budgets and juggling money as hard as they could.
Howard Dean provided health care for every man, woman, and child in a state that ranks dead middle (25th) in per capita income.
Mark Warner took Virginia from 6 billion in the red to a balanced and stable budget today, and still found funding for programs that revamped the state's university system and generated the largest increase in high school math achievement in the nation.
John Kerry and Ted Kennedy's supposedly uber-liberal Massachusetts, which any good conservative will tell you is pretty much our nation's hotbed of sexual immorality, had a lower teen pregnancy rate than the entire Bible Belt.
Bill Clinton brought you the Family Medical Leave Act, plus the greatest expansion of wealth our nation has ever known.
Here's what Democrats are going to do for you: They're going to be responsible with your money. You pay taxes because there are things like national security and roads and enforcement of limits on how much mercury is released into the atmostphere by power plants 5 states away from you and rains into the streams where you catch fish that you feed your kids, that we get a better deal on if we all pay for them together. Democrats are going to get you a good deal; we're not going to send the military that is supposed to be protecting you off on protracted wars justified by questionable intelligence and then direct billions to a company the Vice President used to run while skimping on armor for your sworn protectors. We're going to put money into roads and other forms of transit that get you back home in time to have dinner with your kids, rather than building $250 million bridges to nowhere in our home districts. And we're going to limit mercury emissions and fund investments in cleaner technology, rather than granting waivers, vouchers, and extensions to dozens of plants.
We're going to make health care more affordable for you and your company. We're going to make social security solvent without creating a giveaway to the investment bankers, and we're going to use the tax code to do things like encourage unemployed and underemployed americans to pull themselves out of poverty through the Earned Income Tax Credit, not create huge giveaways to the rich by eliminating the estate tax. We're going to make sure the decision about laws regarding whether your daughter should have to give birth to a rapist's child is in the hands of a balanced and humane judiciary, not a bunch of ideologues.
Government is never perfect, and it is rarely very efficient, but I am tired of the cynics who want to tell people that the best thing the government can hope to do for them is strip things down to bare bones and give the money back to the taxpayers. I pay a lot of taxes, and I could buy a lot of nice stuff and go a lot of places I'd like to see with that money if I still had it. But you could give it all back to me, and there would still be hundreds of things I want that I couldn't buy. Things like protected and pristine national parks, forests, and other wild spaces. Or an education for all the children of my community that makes their future job a brighter prospect for personal gain than stealing my bike. Or EMS services that arrive quickly enough to save my parents from dying of a stroke or heart attack. Or a military that keeps me safe from international threats and steps in when people are killing each other but can be stopped.
In short, Democrats are simply people who think that government ought to keep up its end of the bargain, and do it in a way that is fair and just and out in the open for all to see, guided by the will of the people and the consent of the governed. We are the party that believes our leaders should serve our hopes, not exploit our fears.
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Rhodo-Router
Trad climber
Otto, NC
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Jan 31, 2006 - 10:47am PT
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Yeah but you're a whiner, that's what they told me to say. Talk point..repeat point you complain repeat.
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Rhodo-Router
Trad climber
Otto, NC
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Jan 31, 2006 - 11:11am PT
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Gosh, what are they gonna have for breakfast over there?
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