While the State of the Union speech from last night had some catchy taglines and statements about America not fearing the future, there were a number of empty spaces left in terms of how his proposals would affect the taxpayers who make it all possible. The themes and highlights made by President Obama seemed to be recycled from previous speeches made.
NTU’s President Pete Sepp commented on the speech, "President Obama's final State of the Union Address was billed as a different kind of speech from his previous appearances, but sadly taxpayers were left with an all-too-familiar litany of failed, contradictory fiscal policies that they've heard before in one form or another.
The President called for strengthening Social Security and Medicare, even though his Administration has spent the past seven years opposing most of the major reforms necessary to get the job done. He seemed to take credit for declining gasoline prices, even as his EPA and other agencies attempted to squash the private-sector technologies that have, against the odds, managed to deliver that affordable energy. He decried "recklessness on Wall Street," yet supported laws that have enshrined "too big to fail" and have ignored reforms to the government-backed housing finance giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He extolled the importance of small businesses to the economy, even as confidence among the owners of those businesses remains low because of federal mandates and taxes standing in their way. He railed against "Big Oil" and hedge funds making "their own rules," even as his budgets have proposed their own discriminatory, unfair tax rules toward those sectors. He trumpeted a temporarily shrinking budget deficit, even though he teamed up with lawmakers on both sides of aisle to unravel the very budget caps that were helping to achieve spending discipline.
The President may be correct for now that the economy isn't in decline, but our underperforming recovery and our underwhelming labor force participation should both serve as wake-up calls that the philosophy of tax-borrow-spend-and-regulate must be reversed in a major way. Progress must be made this year toward systemic tax reform, fiscal responsibility, and sensible rulemaking, even though the President's words last night were repackaged from the past."
As the Research Director for NTU’s Foundation, Demian Brady had a slightly different response in regards to the cost of proposals President Obama made in his speech, “The President started his address by saying that he would not have the traditional list of proposals, but then went on to lay out a rather traditional wish list of over 20 potentially expensive proposals, some of which were recycled from his previous SOTUs, including a new tuition-free college program, expanded pre-school, and new spending disguised as "tax cuts." While he boasted that the budget deficit has been reduced, it is expected to increase again, and is on track to reach $1 trillion annually within the next ten years. Despite lofty rhetoric about his ideal politics, the President squandered an opportunity to reach out to Members of Congress on comprehensive tax reform or a plan to address the long-term budget imbalance.”
As the voice of America’s taxpayers NTU continues to promote policies and proposals that stand in favor of wise spending and accountability. More information on SOTU cost analysis can be found here.