What The President Shouldn't Say Tonight In The State Of The Union

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By REP. KEVIN BRADY Posted 01/24/2011 05:45 PM ET

This evening, in fulfillment of Article II, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution, President Obama will give the State of the Union address.

Tonight, this president is at a crossroads.

Will he level with the American people and make a meaningful shift in administration policies or will he merely recast the same old policies with new rhetoric?

As the American people have discovered, soaring rhetoric is no substitute for effective leadership on the key issues facing our nation: jobs, runaway spending and an exploding government debt.

I have never read anything about Kevin Brady but he is dead on the money IMO with that last statement.

Therefore, I hope that we don't hear the following:

I hope the president doesn't apply the word "invest" as a synonym for "spend." Under President Obama, the U.S. has one of the worst budget deficits in the developed world. Our federal debt is exponentially increasing by $54,373 every second.

He undoubtedly will...

At this dangerous rate, our debt will be $18.6 trillion at the end of the president's term — an unimaginable explosion of 75% above and beyond the debt accumulated by all of his 43 predecessors combined.

And yet his supporters just turn a blind eye to this fact.

America's fiscal future is frightening. We must cut federal spending — every wasted dollar, every low priority program and every unconstitutional overreach — every day.

I wish he would have expounded further on the bold part. I mean we all know what Bush did with the Patriot Act was a unconstitutional overreach and I was dead set against many of the moves his administration made. I am also aware that the federal government owning the majority of General Motors was also a unconstitutional overreach on Obama's part. But I am sure this guy knows a hell of a lot more than any of us in that regard.

I hope the president doesn't continue to claim credit for "pulling our economy back from the brink and restoring growth."

Historically, Americans are almost genetically predisposed to bounce back from tough economic times — but not this time. Due to Obama's failed economic policies, this recovery is one of the weakest in history.

Mr. President, do yourself a favor and stop claiming your stimulus plan has "created or saved" 2.7 million to 3.7 million jobs.

According to your own Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. has lost more than 2.1 million nonfarm payroll jobs between the time your stimulus program began in February of 2009 and last month.

Which is part an parcel for his administration. He has dose nothing but play games with numbers that make him look good with no regard to the truth that we can all see when we walk out the door.

[Instead of broken promises and bad policy, work with Republicans in Congress to implement pro-growth policies that will put Americans back to work and get our economy back on track.

I hope the president doesn't claim he "heard the American people" and "got the message" from the November election, while his administration feverishly works to impose the greatest expansion of federal laws and regulations since the New Deal.

Hopefully the fact that he does not have control of the house will prevent this. Roosevelt's New Deal has been fucking this nation for 70+ years with entitlement programs that we are still burdened with.

President Obama's intrusive initiatives are disrupting job creation throughout the economy. New laws and hyperactive regulators have impeded our recovery by increasing uncertainty.

Which is why we are still facing a nearly 10% unemployment rate.

We must push the Senate to join the House in the repeal of ObamaCare and to replace it with common-sense, market-oriented reforms. We must also review the reams of new regulations and where appropriate reverse them.

I hope that the president doesn't continue to pour billions of dollars into subsidies in an attempt to create green energy jobs or invest in premature technologies, while shutting down proven energy sources.

He will...

America is the world's leader in green energy technology because of the market, not federal intervention. After the Macondo oil spill, Obama — hastily and without scientific basis — shut down oil and gas exploration in the Gulf of Mexico and blocked exploration off the coasts of Alaska and Virginia. Although the spill ended in August and the administration lifted the official moratorium, nothing has changed.

Their unreasonable "permitorium" continues to prevent energy workers from returning to work. Meanwhile, the price of crude oil has risen from around $75 to around $90 per barrel, which leaves the average price of gasoline well above $3 per gallon and heading north. End the subsidies, end the moratoriums and restore the power of American-made energy.

Why don't all the people who accused bush of working for the oil companies (and rightly so) level the same finger at Obama?

Finally, I hope that the president doesn't lose sight of the fact that Americans compete on a global playing field.

America is falling behind our foreign competitors, losing job opportunities and hurting our global credibility by refusing to engage in trade.

Thanks to Clinton, NAFTA, and tariffs/duties that have been purposely set to allow big corporations to take their operations out of country and ship the goods back here at prices that can not be competed with.

Recently, President Obama appears to have finally heard the message that American jobs and our economic future depend on expanding U.S. trade.

The National Export Initiative is a step in the right direction, as are the completed negotiations on the U.S.-South Korea free-trade agreement. Until this president puts his capital and effort behind the trade agreements with Colombia and Panama as well, U.S. jobs will be lost here at home and our competitors will continue to take advantage of this president's timidity.

Now this is where Brady starts to shove smoke up our ass. This is the same thing as NAFTA but with a foot in the Asian market. This will help South Korea and hurts us just like NAFTA helped Mexico and Canada but hurt us.

With high unemployment and U.S. businesses and farmers seeking new customers, why would President Obama continue to balk at the opportunity to sell $13 billion more in American products and services to new customers in these lucrative markets?

And the smoke screen darkens here. Do anyone really believe that we can make things cheap enough to compete with the labor rates in Asia?

I am sure President Obama will deliver a great speech. He usually does.

However, I hope that his words will be matched with deeds. Soaring rhetoric will not restore the American people's confidence in their government. President Obama needs to signal that there has been a serious change in direction, not just another rhetorical pivot.

He hasn't and he won't, none of them ever do.

I, for one, am hoping for change.

• Brady represents Texas' eighth congressional district and serves as ranking Republican on the Joint Economic Committee.