Two important speeches were delivered Tuesday night. One, by President Obama, sought to use the State of the Union address to deliver a political message. The other, by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, actually addressed the state of the union. Obama mostly ignored the reality of the federal government running up the largest annual deficit and biggest national debt — $1.5 trillion and $14 trillion, respectively — in American history. Instead, Obama talked at length about adding to the deficit and debt by spending — excuse us, “investing” — more billions on things like trains hardly anybody will ride and developing renewable resources that will cause energy costs to “necessarily skyrocket.”
Obama’s primary strategy for bringing down the deficit and debt was a five-year freeze in federal spending, a recommendation that seems akin to a doctor reassuring a critically injured patent in surgery that the rate at which he is bleeding to death has been stabilized. Otherwise, the Obama speech seemed mainly designed to leave the impression that the president got the message from last November’s election, without actually agreeing to do what voters clearly demanded — which is cut federal spending, get the debt under control, and stop using government red tape to stifle job creation and economic growth.
