With majorities of Americans giving the president low marks for leadership and saying our country is on the wrong track on jobs, health care, retirement security and Iraq, it was important for the president to give at least a nod in his State of the Union address to the shortcomings of his policies. But while he called for courage, we saw none of the courage it takes to admit mistakes – and regain credibility.
America’s workers are drowning in a perfect storm of job loss, skyrocketing health care costs and disappearing retirement security, but President Bush failed to provide them so much as a raft last night.
While the president offered up important, but modest, goals for energy independence, electronic medical records and high school programs to strengthen students’ math and science skills, his rhetoric tested the reality of his policies in area after area.
He called for an America that “competes with confidence, an agenda that will raise standards of living and generate new jobs”– by making permanent the tax cuts that have hugely benefited the wealthy and contributed to widening income inequality.
He said that “our government has a responsibility to provide health care for the poor and the elderly, and we are meeting that responsibility” – yet he continues to push today for Congress to approve cuts in Medicaid that will have devastating consequences for children and families.
He called for America to recognize the contributions of immigrant workers – but advocated a guest worker program that will enslave immigrants and provide no path to citizenship for people who work hard and play by the rules.
And he said that “keeping America competitive requires affordable health care” – but the health care savings accounts and tax breaks for individual coverage the President advocates could actually lead to more costs being shifted onto working people and help nobody but the insurance companies. Like last year’s proposal for Social Security privatization, health savings accounts do nothing to address the underlying problem they purport to solve.
We need universal health care coverage in this country, not stale ideas and savings account schemes.
The president also painted an unrealistically rosy picture of the state of our nation’s economy. It is an affront to America’s workers that at a time when thousands upon thousands of American jobs in the auto, airline and manufacturing industries and elsewhere are being slashed, the president continues to tout a prosperous economy. The economy under President Bush is abysmal for working people. Job creation under the Bush Administration is the lowest since World War II and unbalanced trade policies are shrinking our nation’s middle class. For those workers fortunate enough to have a job, retirement security is vanishing.
“With open markets and a level playing field, no one can out-produce or outperform the American worker,” the president said – ignoring the fact understood by virtually every working American: The playing field is anything but level. And the president’s refusal to take action against currency manipulation by China or submit trade agreements with guarantees for core workers’ rights has only made it more unbalanced.
The president’s lofty rhetoric means little to working people who are struggling to survive in a climate that’s become increasingly hostile to them. The president had an opportunity to present America’s workers with a bold and aggressive plan to set our country on a new course. Sadly, it was yet another opportunity this president squandered.
Contact: Steve Smith 202-637-5018
