President Trump delivered an hour-long address to Congress Tuesday night that carried a consistent, unmistakable message — the federal government has failed, and it’s time to pick up the pieces.
But Trump also managed to deliver an optimistic message, one based on the government’s return to its core function of protecting its people, and giving people the freedom to pursue their hopes and dreams.
Trump’s message was perhaps most clear when he introduced his guests as those whose families were torn apart in domestic terrorism attacks, attacks that he said happened because the government failed in that basic mission.
“Joining us in the audience tonight are four very brave Americans whose government failed them,” he said.
He returned a few times to the failure of Obamacare to deliver a working, affordable healthcare system for millions of people. He said Gov. Matt Bevin of Kentucky has reported that Obamacare is “failing in his state … it is unsustainable and collapsing.”
Later he called it the “imploding Obamacare disaster,” and said mandating that people buy government-approved health insurance was “never the right solution for America.”
He said all recent administrations have done is chalk up more government debt, watch as people struggle to find work, and cede manufacturing jobs to China.
“And we’ve spent trillions of dollars overseas, while our infrastructure at home has so badly crumbled,” he said.
He said President Lincoln warned 150 years earlier that “the abandonment of the protective policy by the American government will produce want and ruin among our people.”
“Lincoln was right — and it is time we heeded his words,” he said.
Trump listed a series of solutions to these problems, and each one involved either paring back the government’s involvement, or fixing errors the government has made.
He talked about fixing the overpriced contract for the F-35 fighter jet, the elimination of “job crushing regulations” and freezing the hiring of “nonessential federal workers.”
Regarding healthcare, he talked about health savings accounts to give people access to the plans they want, “not the plan forced on them by the government.”
A healthier population would arise, he said, “if we slash the restraints, not just at the FDA, but across our government.”
Trump indicated that the failure to secure the border has been the government’s biggest failure, and said he would put the government back on the mission of protecting its people.
“It is not compassionate, but reckless, to allow uncontrolled entry from places where proper vetting cannot occur,” he said.
Trump also concluded with a series of inspiring remarks that relied on individual achievement, instead of hope in the government.
“We just need the courage to share the dreams that fill our hearts,” he said. “The bravery to express the hopes that stir our souls. And the confidence to turn those hopes and dreams to action.”
“And I am asking everyone watching tonight to seize this moment and, believe in yourselves. Believe in your future,” he said. “And believe, once more, in America.”
